


Lost | Shiro (Voltron Legendary Defenders)

by thislittlemermaid6



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-21
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-04-25 22:11:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 34,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14388150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thislittlemermaid6/pseuds/thislittlemermaid6
Summary: Elena is a twenty year old Garrison students trying to become a pilot. She tags along with her friends Lance, Hunk and Pidge when they find and join up with Shiro, the lost pilot on the Kerberos mission, and Keith, Elena's brother. They go on a mission to be the defenders of the universe, finding all of the Lions of Voltron. But what will happen when Shiro and Elena start to become close? And what will happen when Elena starts finding out more  about her real family?





	1. Chapter One (The Rise of Voltron)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys, and welcome to my Shiro fanfiction Lost! 
> 
> If you want to read more, go find me at thislittlemermaid6 on Wattpad!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here is the playlist for this story!
> 
> https://open.spotify.com/user/1256299509/playlist/5HiDsWFEfzROE3EMVrG7VD?si=7FJz5je5TuKpQnXC9ARIJw

Being one of the top pilots in the Garrison is hard for two reasons when you are a girl: you are always struggling to keep the top position, and you also have the men in that position underestimating you the whole entire way. Which means you always have to look out for yourself and keeps your guard up. 

There are three people who don't do that, and they are my friends: Lance, Hunk and Pidge, and my brother. They are my friends who understand where I'm coming from, even with Lance always trying to flirt with me. 

I'm more closest with Pidge, we both connect on a different level. Even though she is much younger than my twenty years years of age, I see her as a younger sibling. I used to be friends with her brother before he disappeared on the mission to Kerberos along with Takashi Shirogane, the top pilot before me and a kid named Keith who dropped out a little bit ago, and Pidge's father. I keep a lookout on Pidge for their brother and father since they don't have anyone else. 

 

Currently they are in the flight simulator, failing miserably. Lance crashed and Hunk keeps getting sick. Pidge tries to get the technology together but is failing as well. 

Come on guys, focus! I think as I watch their flight sternly, making sure not any emotion in front of the personnel. They already know that I take it easy on the guys as it is and associate me with them, so I don't want to get in trouble along with them. I push the bangs that wouldn't fit in my black ponytail behind my ear nervously, and I watch as the boys are escorted out of the simulator, heads hanging in shame. The main commander is scolding, more like yelling at them, and I wince at the tone of voice that he is using. 

When the commander dismisses us, I run over to my friends and hug them. "Not to be a downer but that was really rough guys." 

Hunk and Lance pull away, with Pidge's arms still around my torso. "No kidding." I hear Pidge mumble into my shirt. 

"You'll get it next time guys. If you need help, you know I am always here to help you practice." I say, looking at Lance and Hunk. 

"Anything to get help from a pretty lady." Lance says cheekily. 

"Whatever you say Lance." I say montone with an eye roll, my usual response to his flirting.

“I'm hungry, anyone want to go get some food?” Hunk asks. 

“You're always hungry Hunk.” Is Pidge's response. “I have to go build some tech and Elena is going to help me, right?” She looks at me for confirmation. 

“Maybe later Hunk, I promised Pidge.” I say with a shrug looking up at the tall man. 

“I'll go with you buddy. See you later Pidge and E.” Lance says, saluting us. “Have fun with your techy stuff.” 

Both boys bound off in the direction of the cafeteria, and when they are gone, I say to Pidge, “Ready?” She nods in response to me, before we head off to her room to work on the new tech Pidge was trying out. 

Nighttime came fast enough, and Pidge and I sneak out of the dorms, the hallway dark and empty. I shut the door behind me and run after Pidge, to our destination. We make our way up to the roof, and set up all of the equipment we need, Pidge putting on the headset while I look out at the stars, and then shut my eyes peacefully. 

“You come out here to rock out?” Lance’s voice startles me out of my peace of mind a little bit later. 

Pidge, also startles, yelps and jumps back before saying, “Lance! Um, no, I’m just looking at the stars.” 

“Where did you get this stuff?” Lance asks. “It doesn’t look like Garrison tech.” 

“We built it.” Pidge says with a smirk, and looking at me. 

“You built all this?” Hunk asks, attempting to touch it. 

“Don’t touch!” I exclaim. 

Pidge slaps his hand away, “Stop it!” she pauses, “With this thing I can scan to the edge of the solar system.” 

“That right? All the way to Kerberos?” Lance says suspicious, and my eyes widen. “You guys go ballistic every time the instructors bring it up. What’s your deal?”

“Second warning Hunk!” I exclaim to the boy who was attempting to touch the system again. 

“Look Pidge and Elena, if we’re going to bond as a team and as friends, we can’t have any secrets.” Lance tells us. 

“Fine.” Pidge mutters. “The world as you know it is about to change. The Kerberos mission wasn’t lost because of some malfunction or crew mistakes-Stop touching our equipment!” She starts to explain but Hunk keeps wanting to touch the tech. 

“So we’ve been scanning the system and picking up alien radio chatter.” I continue for Pidge.

“Woah, what?” Hunk perks up. “Aliens?”

“Okay, you guys are insane. Got it.” Lance says to us. 

“We are not!” I exclaim. 

“We’re serious. They keep repeating one word, Voltron.” She picks up their notebook with the word etched on the paper. “And tonight, it’s going crazier than I-we-have ever heard it.” 

“How crazy?” Lance asks, but he doesn’t get to answer. 

“Attention students this is not a drill, we are on lockdown! Security situation zulu niner. Repeat all students are to remain in barracks until further notice.” The announcement blares throughout the compound. 

 

“What’s going on?” Hunk asks. “Is that a meteor?” he points at the sky. “A very, very big meteor?”

Pidge grabs her binoculars and observes, “It’s a ship!” 

Lance takes them from Pidge. “Holy crow! I can’t believe what I’m seeing! That’s not one of ours!” 

“No, it’s one of theirs!” I breath out. 

“So wait there are really aliens out there?” Hunk asks scared. 

We watch as the ship crashes, and the Garrison vehicles move out to see what is there. “We have to go see that ship!” Pidge exclaims, packing up her backpack. 

Lance, Pidge and I move out and I call out, “Hunk, come on!” He mutters something before coming after the three of us. 

After running for a while undetected, we end up on a rock ledge right outside of the fallen ship. Pidge sets up the equipment, and Lance looks through the goggles once again. “Woah, what the heck is that thing?” he asks. “And who the heck is she?” he asks flirtatiously. 

“Lance!” I say, smacking his arm. 

“Ow! Oh right. Alien ship. Man, we'll never get past all those guards to get a look.” he says. 

“Awe man. Yeah, I guess there’s nothing to do but go head back to the barracks right?” he asks, getting up. 

“Wait, they set up a camera up there and I grabbed it’s feed.” Pidge says, and Hunk stops in his tracks. “Look!”” the feed comes up and we see a man on a gurney, with tons of people in white suits around him. 

It’s Shiro! My mind screams. 

“Hey, what are you doing?” he asks scared. 

“Calm down Shiro!” one of the people in the suits tell him. “We have to keep you quarantined so we can run some tests on you.” 

“No, you have to listen to me! They destroyed worlds! Aliens are coming!” 

“That’s Shiro!” Lance says, pointing to the screen. 

“The pilot of the Kerberos mission.” I finish. 

“That guy’s my hero.” Lance says. 

“I guess he’s not dead in space after all.” Hunk observes. 

“Where’s the rest of the crew?” Pidge asks, and I know they are thinking of her dad and brother. 

“Do you know how long you’ve been gone?” the guy in the white coat asks. 

“I don’t know, months, years? Look, there’s no time! Aliens are coming here for a weapon. They’re probably on their way! They’ll destroy us! We have to find Voltron!” 

“Voltron!” Pidge exclaims, looking at me. 

“Sir, look at this. It appears that his arm has been replaced with a cyborg prosthetic.” Another white suit asks. 

“Put him under until we know what that thing can do.” the main one says.

“No! Don’t put me under! No, there’s no time!” 

“They didn’t ask about the rest of the crew.” Pidge says sadly. 

“What are they doing? The guy’s a legend, they’re not even going to listen to him?” Lance asks. 

“We have to get him out.” I say, standing up. 

“I hate to be the voice of reason, always, but weren't we just watching on TV because there was no way to get past the guards?” Hunk asks. 

“Well, I’m going.” I say quietly to the guys and they don’t notice me leave. As I am walking down the rock ridge, an explosion startles me and makes me want to run faster. I see a figure running towards the ship, and I see the familiar red jacket of Keith, and I smile. I run after him as quietly as I can, and he enters the ship. I watch as one of the guards question what’s going on, before he flips all of them. 

I run into the room and around to the other side of Keith, as he turns Shiro’s face towards him, and a groan escapes Shiro’s mouth. “Shiro?” he asks. He then notices that I’m there and exclaims to me, “Elena! What are you doing here? I thought I told you to stay out of trouble!” 

“I’m here to help! He obviously needs it.” I hiss to the mullet boy. 

“Fine.” he states, before cutting Shiro’s bonds. He throws one of his arms around his shoulder, and I take the other. “Just stay safe okay?” and I nod. 

“Nope, no, no you don’t. I’m saving Shiro.” Lance says, taking Shiro’s other arm from me, which earns a nasty glare. 

“Who are you?” Keith asks. 

“The names Lance, we were in the same class at the Garrison?” 

“Really? Are you an engineer?” Keith asks. I take Shiro’s feet in my hands. 

“No, I’m a pilot. We were like rivals, like Lance and Keith, neck and neck?”

“Oh wait, I remember you, you’re a cargo pilot.” Keith says. 

“Well not anymore, I’m fighter class, thanks to you washing out.” 

“Well, congratulations.” Keith deadpans. 

Keith, Lance and I carry Shiro out of the ship and to Keith’s miniship. “Uh, do you mind if we catch a ride with you?” Hunk asks Keith, getting on. 

He make the ship tip a bit as Lance, Pidge, Keith and I help get Shiro onto the ship. “Is this thing going to be big enough for all of us?” Pidge questions. 

“No.” Keith says, starting the ship. 

As the ship moves Pidge ends up with Shiro in their arms. “Why am I holding this guy?” 

“Pidge, do you want to switch?” I ask her, and she nods. I carefully switch spots with her and hold onto Shiro by the waist. I hear Hunk say something, but the words are hard to hear. 

“Can’t this thing go any faster?” Lance questions, look back at the trailing trucks. 

“We can toss out some non-essential weight.” Keith replies, his eyes still straight ahead. 

“Oh right!” he says, and he pauses for a moment before saying, “Okay, so that was an insult. I get it.” 

“Big man, lean left.” Keith yells to Hunk, which he does compliantly. We all lean when he does, and Shiro almost comes out of my grip, but I tighten it so he doesn’t. 

“Oh man, Mister Harris just took out Professor Montgomery.” Hunk pauses. “No, no, he’s fine.”

“Big man, lean right!” Keith commands, and Hunk does what he’s told. We bop and crash around, but we avoid the trucks following us. 

“Guys, is that a cliff up ahead?” Hunk stutters, and I hide my face in Shiro’s shoulder. 

“Yep.” Keith says, before speeding up. We all scream, as we go over the edge. 

“What are you doing? You’re going to kill us all!” Lance exclaims. 

“Shut up and trust me!” Keith yells, before pulling back the throttle and saving us. 

As the sun rises, we end up at the house in the desert. He wakes up when we get him inside, and he slowly doesn’t need my help anymore when we get on the couch. “Thank you.” he strains with a smile when he wakes. 

“You’re welcome, just rest here for a moment.” I say softly to him. 

“Elena, we need to talk.” Keith says, a frown forming on his face. 

“I’ll talk to you later Shiro.” I say, before getting up from beside him. 

I follow Keith onto the porch and I could tell his lecture was coming. “Elena, I thought I told you when I left to stay out of trouble.” 

“And I told you that since I am the oldest I didn’t have to listen to you.” I sass back. 

“Elena…” he starts. 

“Keith, seriously, I stayed out of trouble. I took your place and studied hard. Last night was the first time that I actually went a did something.” 

He hugs me and says, “I missed you, you know that?” 

“I couldn’t tell.” I say with a teasing smirk when we pull away. “I missed you too little brother.” 

I go back inside and cross paths with a now dressed Shiro in the doorway. I throw him a smile, before passing him, going into the kitchen to make a sandwich for my grumbling stomach, and I decide to make a bunch of them for everyone since it has been a long night. I also end up finding brownie mix in the almost empty cabinets so I make that as well. Once everything is finished, I let the brownies cool and bring out the plate of sandwiches. 

I find Pidge and Hunk first, and I hand both of them the plate, in which Hunk takes three sandwiches and Pidge takes one. “Thanks Elena!” they both thank me, and I give them a smile in return. I find Lance next and he takes one. 

I find Keith and Shiro outside, coming towards the front door. “Are you both hungry? I made sandwiches and brownies.” I tell them, holding up the plate. 

“Thanks E, but I’m not hungry.” Keith replies. 

“I’ll take one.” Shiro says with a smile. 

“Thanks.” I say, smiling back. He takes the one off the top and bites into it. 

“I have to show everyone something. You might want to see this E.” Keith says to me, speaking up. 

When we get inside, Keith gathers everyone into the living room, where a tarp was covering something. He pulls it off and it reveals a bulletin board of different information that I can’t understand. “What have you been working on?” Shiro asks from beside me. 

“I can’t explain it really. After getting booted from the Garrison, I was kind of lost, and kind of found myself drawn to this place. It was like some energy was telling me to search.”

“For what?” Shiro and I ask in unison. 

“Well I didn’t really know at the time. Until I stumbled across this area.” He points to a map with circles surrounding it. “It’s an outcropping of boulders and caves covered in ancient markings, each tells a slightly different story about a blue lion. But they all share clues about some event. Some arrival happening last night.” he looks at Shiro. “Then you showed up.”

“I should thank you all for getting me out.” he says. He turns around and holds out a hand to Lance. “Lance right?” Lance holds out his hand to Shiro’s robotic one, and waivers, before shaking it. 

“I’m Elena.” it was my turn to speak up. I shake his hand firm and confidently and he shows me a small smile. 

“The nervous guy’s Hunk. I’m Pidge.” She speaks, shaking Shiro’s hand. “So did anyone from your crew make it out?” she asks and I give a sympathetic smile. All she wanted was to find her brother and dad. 

“I’m not sure. I remember the mission and being captured, after that it’s just bits and pieces.”

“It’s okay, you will remember eventually.” I say to him with a smile, putting a hand on his shoulder comfortingly. 

“Yeah, sorry to interrupt but back to the aliens, where are they now? Are they coming? Are they coming for all of us? Like where are they this very moment?” Hunk asks, and my hand drops from his shoulder. 

“I can’t really put it together. I remember the word Voltron, it’s some kind of weapon they’re looking for, but I don’t know why. Whatever it is, I think we need to find it before they do.” 

“Well last night I was rummaging through Pidge’s stuff, and I found this picture, look it’s his girlfriend.” Hunk says with a smile. It’s not his-her girlfriend, I think angrily, but don’t say it aloud. 

“Hey give me that!” Pidge says, swiping the picture from Hunk. “What were you doing with my stuff?” 

“I was looking for a candy bar.” Hunk replies. 

“If you wanted food Hunk, I could have made it for you.” I say annoyed. 

He looks at me before continuing, “But then I started reading his diary-” 

“What?” Pidge exclaims, taking the notebook from the boy. 

“I noticed a repeating set of numbers that the aliens are looking for looks a lot like a Fraunhofer line.” 

“Frown...who?” Keith asks and I nod with him. 

“It’s a number describing the emission spectrum of an element. But this element doesn’t exist on earth. I thought it might be this Voltron, and I think that I can build a machine to look for it, like a Voltron geiger counter.” 

“Hunk you big gassy genius!” Lance exclaims happily. 

“It’s really fascinating, really.” He pulls out a piece of paper. “It looks like this.” 

The image catches my eye and I ask, “Can I see that?” He hands me the paper and I walk up to the board and study it for a moment. I put it underneath the picture of the mountains before holding it up in their place. “Well would you look at that?” I say and when I look back at everyone, their faces look surprised.


	2. Chapter Two (Rise of Voltron)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter, the group ends up finding the Blue Lion. What will happen next?

After packing a bag, we all leave and we find ourselves in front of the mountain range, just staring it at. “Okay, I admit it, this is kinda freaky.” Lance speaks up, his voice echoing. 

 

“I’m getting a reading.” Hunk says, his machine emitting some feedback. Pidge, who’s attached to him, follows as he moves around his geiger counter. We get to a point where the counter starts to go crazy, which is in front of a dark cave. 

 

We all enter it and Hunk whispers, “Whoa.” I am in the same amount of awe.

 

“What are these?” Shiro asks. 

 

“These are the lion carvings that I was telling you about.” Keith says, his voice reverberating through the cavern. “They’re everywhere around here.” The cavern is dark for a moment and then the markings on the walls turn blue, and I gasp in awe. “They’ve never done that before.” Keith says surprised. 

 

The ground below us gives away and I feel an arm go around my waist as we slide down rock. We land in a pool of water and see Shiro’s robotic arm around me. “Thanks.” I whisper to him, in which I get a nod in response. I stand in the water and hold out a hand to him, which he takes. I see Lance already standing staring ahead, and my eyes follow where his is looking at and walk towards it. ‘It’ was a giant blue lion, like it was depicted in the cave drawings, surrounded by a force field of some sort. 

 

“They  _ are _ everywhere.” Keith mutters. 

 

“Is this it?” Pidge asks from my side. “Is this the Voltron?” 

 

“It must be.” Shiro speaks.

 

“This has been what’s causing all this crazy energy out here.” Keith says. He walk towards it and as he does he says, “It looks like there is some force field around it.” We all walk behind him. 

 

“Does anyone get the feeling that this is staring at them?” Lance questions. 

 

“Hmm no.” Shiro says, and I stifle a laugh at his response. 

 

“Yeah, the eyes are totally following me.” Lance says convinced. 

 

“I wonder how we get through this?” Keith asks,  touching the force field. 

 

I approach it the same time that Lance does, and he says, “Maybe you just have to knock.” He knocks on it when I touch it, and screams in response when the force field opens up. It was like a ton of wind came into the cavern because my hair was blowing all over the place. Everyone looked up at the lion in surprise, and I could hear everyone freaking out. 

 

Suddenly, a vision came to the front of my mind, of five of these kinds of lions forming together to make one huge fighting robot with a sword of fire. I could feel the intense energy from it like I was actually in the same room as this robotic fighter.

 

“Whoa.” I hear everyone exclaim, but I am still seeing something strange. 

 

Instead of the powerful being that I just saw, I see a man and a woman in a pod, sleeping. The white haired girl radiates this soft peaceful energy. In a flash, I see them both commanding this ship that looks like a foreign castle, like they are going into battle.  _ You have the power to help them. _ A female voice says.  _ A whole lot of it, so please, help us save the universe.  _

 

Another vision comes, of a boy with long white as snow hair, and a women with lavender hair, holding a baby girl with the same colored hair.  _ You have to send her away. She could be dangerous,  _ a menacing voice echoes, and a baby cries as she is being ripped away from the boy. 

 

I am snapped out of the vision by Shiro’s voice, “Elena, are you coming?” 

 

“Uh huh.” I say with a nod, still in a daze. The lion’s mouth had opened and created steps for all of us to get in. Shiro waits for me halfway up. 

 

“Are you alright?” he asks. “You’re tearing up.” 

 

“I’ll be fine.” I say, clearing my throat, and I wipe the tears from the corner of my eye. When we both get into the lion, Lance is sitting in the pilot’s seat, the controls already activated. 

 

“Alright, very nice!” Lance exclaims. 

 

“Okay guys, I feel the need to point out, so that we are all aware, we are inside a futuristic alien cat head right now.” Hunk says. 

 

“Whoa, did you guys just hear that?” Lance asks. 

 

“Hear what?” Keith asks. 

 

“I think it’s talking to me.” He thinks for a moment for pressing a few buttons and the lion starts up. “Okay, got it. Now let’s try this.” he says, and he pushes his controls forward. 

 

We break through the mountain range and the lion starts to fly, and Lance’s flying is just as worse as his normal piloting. I cling onto Shiro for dear life and he takes a hold of me so that I don’t fall. 

 

“You’re the worst pilot ever!” Keith and I yell at Lance. We all are screaming for dear life. 

 

“Isn’t this awesome!” Lance exclaims. 

 

“Make it stop, make it stop.” Hunks pants, looking like he’s going to get sick. 

 

“I’m not making it do anything. It’s like it’s on autopilot.” Lance tells him. 

 

“Where are you going?” I ask. 

 

“I just said it’s on autopilot.” he pauses, “It says that there is an alien ship approaching Earth. I think we’re supposed to stop it!” 

 

“What did it say exactly?” Pidge asks. 

 

“Well, it’s not like it’s saying words, more like feeding ideas into my brain.” Lance responds. “Kind of.” 

 

“Well if this thing is the weapon that they’re coming for, why don’t we, I don’t know, give it to them?” Hunk says scared. “Maybe they’ll leave us alone.” he pauses. “Sorry lion, nothing personal.” 

 

From besides me, Shiro speaks, “You don’t understand, these monsters spread like a plague throughout the galaxy destroying everything in their path. There’s no bargaining with them. They won’t stop unless everything is dead. 

 

“Oh, nevermind then.” Hunk states. I happen to look out the side window and awe registers on my face. We’ve made it out into space, and it was really fast too. “Holy crow is that really an alien ship?” Hunk asks, and I snap out of my awe, looking at the big and scary purple ship. 

 

“They found me.” Shiro says.

 

“We won’t let them get you.” I whisper to him, only so he could hear it. 

 

Suddenly the ship start to fire and Pidge exclaims, “We’ve gotta get out of here!” 

 

Lance powers the lion as it dodges the lasers and says, “Okay, I think I know what to do.” 

 

“Be careful man, this isn’t a simulator.” Pidge yells to him. 

 

“Well that’s good, I always wreck the simulator.” He has the lion dodge more of the laser beams and thrusts his controls forward, a bright blue beam of light coming from the lion’s mouth. The light hits the ship and some parts explode. “Let’s try this.” he says, pulling back his controls. We dodge the beams being shot at us, and the lion ends up on the side of the ship, it’s claws scraping the side of it. 

 

We move away before it blows up, and I put a hand on his shoulder. “Nice job Lance.” 

 

“I think it’s time to get these guys away from our planet.” Keith replies. 

 

As we are flying away, I could feel the bigger ship coming after us. “Shit.” I hiss. 

 

“Oh no!” Hunk exclaims. 

 

“They’re gaining on us!” Pidge reacts. 

 

“It’s weird, they’re not trying to shoot us, they’re just chasing.” 

 

“Alright, you now think that aliens are chasing us is  _ good?”  _ Hunk points out. “I am not on board with this new direction guys!” 

 

“Where are we?” Keith asks. 

 

“We’re on the edge of the solar system.” I breath out. 

 

“There’s Kerberos.” Shiro observes, looking out the window. 

 

“It takes months for our ships to get out this far. We got out here in five seconds.” Pidge observes. 

 

Suddenly a huge portal-like thing appears and I can feel all of the power radiating off of it, and it was like I was put in a trance because of it. “What the heck is that?” Hunk exclaims. 

 

“This may seem crazy but I think the lion wants us to go through there.” Lance says unsure. 

 

“I think we should as well.” I speak. 

 

I feel Pidge’s eyes on me as they ask, “Where does it go?” 

 

“I don’t know.” Lance says. “Shiro? You’re the senior officer here. What should we do?” 

 

“Whatever’s happening, the lion knows more than we do. I say we trust it. But we’re a team now, we should decide together.” he responds, looking at all of us. 

 

I watch as Pidge puts a hand on Lance’s shoulder, “Well, I guess we’re all skipping class tomorrow,” before launching the space lion right into the vortex of power. It was hard to hold on at first, but I ended up grabbing the back of Lance’s chair, while luckily Shiro’s arm flung around my waist again. We make it through the portal, with everyone fine, and we all look in awe at where we are. 

 

“Whoa! That was…” Lance trails off, and I hear Hunk throw up. I scrunch my face up in disgusts. 

 

“So sorry.” Hunk whispers. 

 

“I’m not surprised it took this long.” I hear Pidge mutter and I smile. 

 

“I don’t recognize any of these constellations. We must be a long, long ways from Earth.” Shiro says besides me. 

 

“The lion seems to want to go to this planet. I think it’s going home.” Lance says as the blue lion speeds straight for the planet in front of us. We all lean forward as the lion enters the atmosphere and Lance says, “Guys, personal space! Hunk your breath is killing me! Elena, your personal spaces is  _ always  _ welcome.” At this comment I roll my eyes. 

 

“Guys, is it just me or is anyone having second thoughts about entering a mysterious wormhole?” Hunk complains. “Why are we listening to a robotic lion anyway?” 

 

“It got us away from that alien warship, didn’t it?” Lance says to Hunk. 

 

“I don’t know if you know this, but we  _ are  _ in an alien warship.” Keith points out, and I put my hand on his shoulder comfortingly. 

 

“Keith.” I whisper warningly.

 

“Oh are you scared?” Lance teases. 

 

“With you at the helm, terrified.” 

 

“Alright knock it off.” Shiro says at the same time that I exclaim: 

 

“Cut it out guys.” 

 

“No one’s happy to be in this situation but we’re here now. If we want to get through this we have to do it together.” Shiro says after looking at me for a moment. 

 

“So, what do we do?” Pidge questions. 

 

“First we find out where we are headed. Lance?” 

 

“I don’t know. I’m sorry, the lion isn’t talking to me anymore.” he responds. “Wait, listen, I think I hear something.” 

 

“I think I’m hearing it too.” Keith says.

 

“It’s kind of like a high pitched squeal?” Hunk says. 

 

Suddenly, the smell of fart engulfs the interior of the lion and I cover my nose. “God damn it Lance!” I exclaim. 

 

“But seriously there’s a castle up ahead.” He says after everyone’s complaining.


	3. Chapter Three (The Rise of Voltron)

The castle that you would normally picture when the word castle is brought up in a conversation is not what Cinderella’s castle looks like. It’s far beyond that. The white, black and blue structure had four tiers that seemed like they were shaped like the outside of canons. Each one of the tiers shines brightly in the sunlight, making it even more beautiful. Once the blue lion got closer to the castle, the castle lit up like a Christmas tree. 

The lion lands at the front door of the castle, nothing happening for a few moments. “Keep your guard up.” Shiro tells us. 

“Something wrong?” Pidge asks. 

“My crew was captured by aliens once, I’m not going to let it happen again.” Shiro says. The blue lion opens its mouth to let us out, and I am the last to leave. 

“Thank you Blue.” I tell it quietly, putting a hand on the railing. 

It’s no problem Miss Elena, a gently voice speaks in my mind. Not sure that I was hearing things, I look around, and I hear it speak again. We will meet again. The mouth closes when I exit and the boys and I freak out, me more than anything. Mine is more of an internal freakout. 

“Oh no I knew it was going to eat us!” Hunk exclaims. 

“Calm down!” I yell as the lion roars. It seems like it’s roars are a signal for the door to open because that’s exactly what it does. 

“Oh! The door is open! Guess I was wrong about you.” Hunk says to the blue lion. 

Everyone walks into the castle and I pet the Blue Lion’s leg once more affectionately, before following everyone else into the castle. When we get inside, the castle was dark, and the only sound that could be heard was the sound of our shoes on the linoleum. 

“Hello?” Hunk’s voice echoes throughout the hall and we all look at him. 

“For the size of the lion, I expected the size of the steps to be bigger.” Pidge’s voice echoes. 

After she finishes, the lights come on and an automatic voice says, “Please hold for an identity scan.” A blue ray of light forms around us. 

“What?” I hear Pidge’s voice ask as blue rings come up our bodies. 

“Why are we here?” Shiro asks, “What do you want with us?” 

After all of the scanning goes on, all of the lights turn on, including the lights on the stairs. “Whoa.” I whisper, and Keith comes over to me, protectively. 

As the light turn on, Pidge says, “I guess we’re going that way.” 

As we walk, the lights go on and Hunk keeps shouting, “Hello?”

Once we get into a place with a weird statue thing in the middle, Keith asks, “Where are we?”

“It’s some kind of control room.” Pidge notices. 

Suddenly, two pods come up from the floor, smoke ominously coming from them. “Are these guys dead?” Hunk asks. One of the pods open and I see a glimpse of white hair, and the girl from my vision becomes visible. I take a few steps forward and both Shiro and Keith grab my arms, but I shrug them away. 

The girl gasps, and breathes, “Father!” before starting to move and Lance catches her in his arms before she hits the ground. 

“Hello.” Lance flirts. 

“Who are you? Where am I?” she asks confused. 

“I’m Lance, and you’re right here in my arms.” he flirts. 

“Cut it out Lance. “ I hiss to him. I take a step forward and tell her softly, “My name is Elena.” 

She looks at me then Lance, then says to him, “Your ears, their hideous.” and I stifle a laugh. “What’s wrong with them?”

“Nothing’s wrong with them! They heard exactly what you said about them!” he exclaims. Suddenly, the girl, grabs Lance’s arms and brings them behind his back in a hold and I take another warning step forward. 

“Who are you? Where’s King Alfor? What are you doing in my castle?” she questions. 

“A giant blue lion brought us here, that’s all we know!” Lance exclaims. 

“How do you have the blue lion? Where is it’s paladin?” she pauses, “What are you all doing here? Unless...how long has it been?” 

From behind me, Shiro says, “We don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Why don’t you tell us who you are?” I ask her gently, carefully putting a hand on her shoulder, which she doesn’t reject. “Maybe we can help you.” 

“I am Princess Allura of Planet Altea. I’ve got to find out where we are and how long we’ve been asleep.” She says. She gives me a small smile before stepping away, and putting her hands on the control panel that we used to wake her up. 

When hologram screens come up, Pidge says, with her eyes wide, “Well okay, that’s how that works.”

From behind us, I hear the other pod open, and the other man from my vision comes back into action. “AH! Enemy combatants!” He exclaims, and he starts to attack Lance with what seems like karate. He doesn’t get very far because he exclaims, “Quiznak! You’re lucky I have the old case of the Sleep Chamber Knees. Otherwise I would grab your head like this, wrap you up like so and one, two three, sleepytime.” 

“Well before you did that I would…” Lance starts to make all sorts of noises. “Like that.” 

They continue to bicker on like this, and while they do, I say to the Princess, “Is there anyway I can help you?” 

“No, thank you Elena.” she acknowledges, and her eyes go widen when she reads her screen. “It can’t be.” 

“What is it?” the red-haired man asks. 

“What’s the matter?” I ask her softly. 

“We’ve been asleep for ten thousand years.” she breathes out. It’s like she was caught in a memory, because moments later she says, “Planet Altea and the whole solar system has been destroyed. Coran, father is gone...our entire civilization...Zarkon.” she says angrily. I put a comforting hand on her shoulder. 

“Zarkon?” Shiro asks. 

“He was the king of the Galra. A vile creature and enemy to all free people.” 

“I remember now. I was his prisoner.” Shiro reveals, and my heart sinks for him. 

“He’s still alive?” she asks, in shock. “Impossible.”

“I can’t explain it but it’s true. He’s searching for a superweapon called Voltron.” 

“He’s searching for it because he knows it’s the only thing that can defeat him. And that’s exactly why we must find it before he does.” she says confidently. 

Allura keeps looking at the control panel and Coran says, “Princess you must eat, it’s been ten thousand years.” 

“I’m not hungry.” she says solem. 

“Man, ten thousand years? That’s like one thousand plus ten.” Lance says neievly. 

“That’s times ten.” Keith points out and I try not to laugh. 

“Whatever.” Lance replies. “Dropout.” He’s got a point.

“I haven’t eaten since breakfast and I’m starving.” Hunk brings up. 

“Yeah, but you’ve thrown up like five times.” Pidges sasses and I go over and ruffle her hair, getting a playful glare in return. 

“Good point.” he starts to eat some of the green goo that was on the table. 

“Don’t forget I offered you guys sandwiches and brownies.” I bring up. 

“I can’t believe your civilization created such advanced technology ten thousand years ago.” Shiro says in awe. “It must have been an incredible place.” 

“Yes, it was.” Coran speaks. “But now it’s gone, and we are the last Alteans alive.” he looks at Allura sadly. They both share a sad moment, and he hugs her for comfort. She looks like she’s heard something and finds the source of the noise. I follow her and find the cutest mice I have ever seen. 

“Look like you’re not the last after all.” I say to her with hope, and she gives me a smile, tears pooling in her eyes, and she hugs me. The moment is broken by a loud beeping.

“A Galra ship has set its tracker to us!” Coran exclaims. 

“How did they find us?” Allura asks. 

“I’m not sure, but I bet it’s Keith’s fault.” Lance sasses. 

“Say whatever you have to say to make yourself feel better.” Keith responds. “After getting us stuck on the other side of a wormhole.” 

“I’ll get you stuck in a wormhole.” Lance exclaims. 

“Enough you two!” I exclaim, giving them both an angry glare. 

“Slow it cadets! This is no time to place blame, it’s time to work as a team!” Shiro says at the same time I do. “How long do they arrive?” He asks the Alteans. 

“Given their speed?” Coran asks, and he starts to do the math on his fingers. “I’d say a couple of days.” 

“Good, let them come. By the time they get here, you five will have reformed Voltron.” She says to the guys. Then she looks at me. “Then together we will destroy Zarkon’s empire.” 

There is a loud burp from Hunk and he says, “Sorry, food goo.” 

“Princess, there are five lions. How are we going to find the rest?” Shiro asks and I nod along with his question.

She goes to the control panel once again and places her hands down on the controls, “King Alfor connected the lions to Allura’s life force. She alone is the key to the lions’ whereabouts.” says Coran. 

All at once, there was a giant hologram of the entire universe floating all around us, and it was like I was looking out at the stars from the roof of the Garrison. “These are coordinates.” Pidge notices. “The black lion looks like it’s in the same location as the blue lion.” 

“Look at your primitive synapsids farring away in their little brain cage.” Coran examines. 

“Very observant. That’s because the black lion is in the castle.” 

“To keep the black lion out of Zarkon’s hands, King Alfor locked it away in the castle. It can only be freed when the other four lions are present.” Coran explains. 

“As you have found, the lions choose their pilots. It is a mystical bond and cannot be forced. The quintessence of the pilot is mirrored in his lion. Together, they form something greater than science can explain.” She turns the map. “The black lion is the decisive head of Voltron. It will take a pilot that is a born leader and in control at all times. Someone who’s men will follow without hesitation.” the little black lion stops in front of Shiro. “That is why Shiro will pilot the black lion.” She moves the map again. “The green lion has an inquisitive personality, and needs a pilot if intellect and daring.” the figure stops in front of Pidge. “Pidge, you will pilot the green lion.” She starts again, “The blue lion-” 

“Let me guess takes the most handsome and best pilot of the bunch?” Lance interrupts. 

“The yellow lion,” She continues, ignoring his comment, “Is caring and kind. It’s pilot is one who puts his need of others above his own. His heart must be mighty.” the yellow lion moves in front of Hunk. “As the leg of Voltron, you will lift the team up and hold them together.” She moves the map one more time. “The red lion is temperamental and the most difficult to master. It’s faster and more agile, but also more unstable. It’s pilot needs to be someone who relies on instinct than skill alone.” the red lion stops in front of Keith. “Keith, you will fly the red lion.” 

“What? This guy?” Lance complains. 

“Unfortunately I cannot locate the red lion’s coordinates yet. There must be something wrong with the castle. After ten thousand years, it might need some work.” 

“Don’t worry we’ll find it soon, they don’t call me the Coranic for nothing. It’s because it sounds like mechanic. Coranic, mechanic, Coranic.” He trails off. “It doesn't sound exactly like it, but similar.” 

The lions in the hologram come to life and I gasp in awe. “Once all of the lions are united, you will form Voltron, the most powerful warrior ever known.” Allura speaks and the same vision of Voltron shows again, only in holographic format. “The Defenders of the Universe.” 

“Awesome.” says Lance. 

Wait, so we are going to be in there in flying lions, got that part. How do lions turn into legs? Also is this going to be a long trip? Because I have to pee.” Hunk speaks. “Do you people pee?” 

“Too much information Hunk, just too much.” I mutter to him and he gives me a sheepish smile. 

“We don’t have much time. Pidge, Elena and I will go after the Green Lion. Lance, you take Hunk and get the Yellow one. Keith, you stay here. If you locate that Red Lion, go get it.” Shiro speaks looking at each one of us. 

“In the meantime, I’ll get this castle’s defenses ready. It’ll be sorely needed.” Allura says with confidence. 

“I’ll ready a pod and load in the coordinates so you can reach the Green Lion.” Coran informs us. 

Coran quickly gets a pod ready for us and I load myself and the backpack that I brought from the ranch house into it, only to find Pidge and Shiro already there, Shiro in the pilot’s chair. I stand next to Pidge and bump her shoulder. “Matt would be proud of you K.” I whisper to her. “I know I’m proud of you, Paladin of the Green Lion.” I tease the last part and she throws me a wide smile. We take off into the never ending sea of space. 

“We can only keep the wormhole open that leads to the lions for two of your Earth hours. So you’ll have to be quick about your work. The good news is that according to my readings, both planets are relatively peaceful. So if you do get stuck, it could be relaxing places to live out the rest of your lives.” Coran says over the comms. “Well enjoy the trip!” 

Everyone starts to complain, but we enter the mass vortex of power that I felt the first time that we went through. The ship gets us to the planet that Coran had programmed into the navigation quickly, and we land the ship in a grassy plain before starting out on foot, Pidge with a detector in her hand. We travel through a rainforest, and I trail behind next to Shiro for safety, not to say that I couldn’t fend for myself when the time calls for it. 

We break through the jungle and onto a shoreline. There is a boat on the shore, and Shiro, Pidge and I walk towards, it, and gasp in awe when we see that a lion’s head is carved in the bow.

Out of nowhere, a sloth-like creature starts getting into the boat, like he or she was going to captain it. Shiro, Pidge and I cry out in surprise, and defensively I grab Shiro’s arm since Pidge was in his arms. It makes a noise at us, and I slowly let go of my grip on Shiro’s human arm. 

“It’s-uh-whatever that thing is.” Pidge observes. She then hop off of Shiro’s back and my head turns to where they were staring. The sloth creature wanted us to follow them to the boat. 

“I think he wants us to get in the canoe.” Pidge says confused. 

“Then I guess we should go.” Shiro compromises, looking at the both of us. 

I shrug, and then say, “I’m in!”

Pidge gives us both a stare as if to question our motives, and Shiro says, “What? I’ve been locked up by aliens for a year. This is nothing.” Shiro moves forward.

“And I guess you’ll do anything Shiro does then?” Pidge asks me. 

“I guess I want an adventure.” I say, shrugging my shoulders once more. “Following the leader is a bonus.” I bound after Shiro, and when we get to the canoe, Shiro helps me in by taking one hand as I go in, all gentleman-like. “Thanks.” I whisper, a blush blooming on my face. 

He nods and when we all are in the canoe, the creature starts to row us across the river. On the riverside, there were cute alien animals popping out of the bushes and I almost tip over the boat trying to get a closer look. We quickly get to the entrance where the Green Lion was supposed to be, and Pidge speaks after awhile, “I wonder if Hunk and Lance are having just a good time as us.” 

“It’s Hunk and Lance, they’ll be fine.” I say, putting a hand on their shoulder. 

“I know the Princess said that this is my lion, but what if she’s wrong? I means she’s probably not because she’s a princess. But I’m not a pilot, even though I’ve always wanted to be a pilot, I mean I read all of the fighter manuals but I never got to fly the simulator. But hey I can’t be all that worse than Lance, he crashed all the time. But what if I get in there and it doesn’t respond? What if I get in there and my feet doesn’t touch the pedals? What if there aren’t even pedals?” Pidge exclaims as they babble on. I put a hand on their shoulders to stop their anxiety. 

“You’re rambling. Our commander on the Kerberos mission is the smartest man I’ve ever met, and he always said, if you get too worried about what could go wrong, you might miss a chance to do something great.” Shiro says to them, and I could feel her sadness over her father and brother being gone. 

When we get to shore, I can hear Pidge gasp in awe. The three of us get out of the boat and wave to the sloth-creature as a thank you, and we walk through the jungle again to get to the light up lion symbols that Lance found in the cave with the Blue Lion. We walk towards the old steps that light up a green color when we approach them, the lights leading to a giant mass of tangled roots. 

I take Pidge’s hand and whisper, “You’ve got this.” 

“Go, be great.” Shiro says to Pidge encouragingly. They smile at him before climbing up the stairs and obstacles in excitement. As they climb, Shiro says turning to me, “You really do care for him.” 

“He’s like a sibling to me Shiro. I would do anything to protect him.” 

Suddenly the ground shakes and a lion’s growl can be heard. The Green Lion emerges from the mass of tangled vines, a green light surrounding it. I see Shiro smile, and I smile too. Pidge did it!

Pidge lands the Green Lion, and Shiro and I enter it. We take off towards the wormhole, to where Princess Allura and Coran were waiting for us at the castle.


	4. Chapter Four (The Rise of Voltron)

We get back before Lance and Hunk, but they arrive shortly after us, groaning in pain. “You made it!” Allura breathes out. 

“Yeah, just barely. That was a nightmare. I almost puked out there. I felt like Hunk!” Lance exclaims. 

“Think about how I felt. I am Hunk.” he sasses. 

Pidge looks at me and Shiro and says, “Yeah, we had a tough time too.” and flashes us a cute smile. 

“Did we find the Red Lion yet?” Shiro asks. 

“Allura just located it. It’s a bit of good news and bad news. The good news is the Red Lion is nearby. The bad news is that it’s aboard the Galra ship now orbiting Aris. But good news again, we’re Aris!” Coran explains. 

“That’s not good news Coran.” I mutter. 

“They’re here already?” Shiro exclaims. 

“Yes, I guess my calculations were a bit off. I think counting is more of an art than a science.” Coran says apologetically. 

“I get that completely.” I mumble. I never was good at math while in the Garrison. 

Feedback comes from the ship’s screen and a purple figure appears on the screen. “Princess Allura, this is Commander Sendak of the Galra Empire.” Everyone was a little bit scared or angry that this guy was on the screen, and I chose to be the former. “I come on behalf of Emperor Zarkon, Lord of the Known Universe. I am here to confiscate the lions. Turn them over to me...or I will destroy your planet.” he says menacingly, before the screen’s feed shuts off. 

From besides me Shiro says, “Alright let’s not panic.” 

“Not panic? The scary purple alien thing is heading his battleship towards us. We only have four lions.” Hunk exclaims. 

“Technically we have three working lions.” I speak up and I see Pidge nod within my peripherals. 

“That’s right, thanks Elena.” he says, petting my shoulder annoyed. I roll my eyes as he moves around the room. “Three working lions and a castle that’s like ten thousand years old.” 

“Actually it’s ten thousand six hundred years old. You see it was built by my grandfather..” Coran starts.

“Coran, thank you for that. See now is the perfect time to panic!” Hunk says, interrupting the Altean. 

“Wait, this castle has a particle barrier we can activate.” Allura exclaims. 

“Girl, you’ve already activated my particle-” Lance starts. 

“Lance!” I exclaim at the same time Shiro does. 

“The particle barrier won’t hold Sendak’s iron cannon forever.The Galra technology must have advanced since the time that we fought them last.” Coran says, pulling up schematics on the screen. 

“Panic now?” Hunk asks. 

“No, we’ve just got to figure out our plan of action.” Shiro tells him. 

“And figure it out quickly.” I finish. 

“I say we pop through a wormhole and live to find another day.” says Lance. 

“I second that. Yes, I mean we find all of the lions, we gave it the old college try, couldn’t do it, we couldn't form Voltron. I mean we can form a snake...or a worm to go through that hole Lance that you were talking about!” Hunk spews out. 

“Then it’s settled. Allura, you ride with me. One of you take the old guy and Elena.” Lance speaks, and you can practically see the steam coming from Coran’s ears. 

“We can’t just abandon Aris.” Pidge and I say at the same time. 

“The Galra will keep capturing planets and prisoners until we stop them.” I continue, thinking of Matt. 

“Okay, if we run maybe Sendak will follow us and leave this planet alone like when we left Earth. We form the snake-like thing and...” he makes a motion of a snake with his arms, “And we’re out of here.” 

“Sendak could destroy the planet then come after us anyway.” my brother speaks. “Staying is our only option.” 

“Here’s an option, shut your quiznak!” Lance exclaims to Keith. 

“I don’t think you're using that word correctly.” Keith seethes. 

“What do you know mullet?” Lance asks his voice rising. 

“We’re staying.” Keith growls, and my face pales at his tone of voice.. 

“Leaving!” Lance exclaims. 

“Staying!” Pidge says, raising her voice. 

“Snake!” Hunk exclaims. 

I’d rather stay, but it’s best not to get involved in this.

“Guys stop!” Shiro yells, and I’m grateful for him at this moment. 

“Princess Allura, these are your lions. You’ve dealt with the Galra empire before, you know what we’re facing better than any of us. What do you think is the best course of action?” I say, my voice at a soft octave as I speak up. 

She looks at me with her eyes wide, and she stutters, “I-I don’t know.” 

“Perhaps your father can help.” Coran offers. 

“My father?” she questions softly. 

They both leave the control room and Pidge and the boys and I were left alone. I go to a corner of the room and look out the window. I’ve never heard Keith raise his voice like that before, I think to myself. “Elena, what would you rather do?” Shiro’s voice asks, breaking me from these thoughts. 

“Stay.” I say softly, to counteract the tone of voices that were used. “Even though I don’t have a lion like the five of you guys, I still want to save the universe from the aliens that destroyed another planet.” And took my best friend from me. 

There is silence between us before he speaks, “I want to stay too. But don’t tell the boys that.” 

“It’ll be our secret then.” I say, cracking a smile, and eventually he does too. 

The doors open and Allura appears, in a completely different outfit than what she left in. “You five paladins were brought here for a reason. The Voltron lions are meant to be piloted by you and you alone. We must fight, and keep fighting until we defeat Zarkon. It is our destiny. Voltron is the universe’s only hope. We are the universe's only hope.” she speaks determined. 

“We’re with you Princess.” Shiro says confidently. 

She brings the boys to a room, in which I decide to come along. Inside was glass tubes with armor in them. “Your suits of armor.” Allura states. Each boy stands in front of their armor and revels in the sight of them. 

Coran leans over to Princess Allura and asks, “Princess are you sure about this? They aren’t the best and brightest the universe has to offer.”

“No, but they’re all we’ve got.” she speaks after looking down a moment. 

“Boys, it’s time to suit up.” Shiro say to them. 

As they are getting dressed, I say to Allura, “If you need any help, I’m here. I’m with you guys through it all.” 

She gives me a soft smile and says softly, “Thank you Elena.” 

Once the boys have all of their armor on, I say, “Looking good guys!” and some of their cheeks turn pink. 

Allura puts her hand on a panel and some devices come floating out. “The bayard, the traditional weapon of the Paladins of Voltron. It takes a distinct shape for each paladin.” Hunk is the first to grab his and it turns into a giant gun. My brother gets his next, and it turns into a sword, and his wrist gives him a shield. Lance gets a sharpshooting gun, and Pidge gets a small dagger of sorts. 

“Aw, you got a cute little bayard.” Lance teases. I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Pidge stabs him with the bayard, electrocuting him.

“Yeah, it is pretty cute.” She mutters, and I try to hold back a laugh, failing miserably. 

“Shiro, I’m afraid your bayard was lost with it’s paladin.” Allura tells Shiro sadly. 

“I guess I’ll have to make do.” 

We move from the armory back to the control room. “We need to retrieve the Red lion from Sendak’s ship.” Allura tells us. 

“That’s a pretty big ship.” I observe. 

“How do we know where the Red Lion is?” Keith asks. 

“Well it’s not a matter of we, but it’s a matter of you.” Pidge points out. 

“Pidge is right, once we get you in, you’ll be able to feel its presence and like, track it down.” Hunk says animatedly. 

“Yeah, you know how you felt that crazy energy when we were in the desert?” Lance asks. 

“Yeah, you made fun of me for that.” Keith deadpans. 

“And I’m proud of that.” he drawls. “But turns out it’s exactly like that mumbo jumbo.” 

“Keith remember. The Red lion is extremely temperamental. You’ll have to earn its respect.” Allura reminds. 

My brother nods and I watch as Shiro puts a hand on his shoulder. “Alright so here’s the plan of attack.”


	5. Chapter Five (The Rise of Voltron)

_ The Galra empire knows about the Blue and Yellow lion, but they don’t know that we have the Green lion too. Hunk, Lance, you’ll act like a decoy and pretend to give yourselves up. _

 

I watch as the two boys fly towards the Galra ship and I hear Lance say from the control room, “Attention Galra ship, do not fire, we’re surrendering our lions.” Both lions hover near the alien ship, and through the comms link I can hear Lance mutter, “I hope this works.”

 

_ While Sendak is distracted, Keith, Pidge and I will sneak onto the ship in the Green lion while Pidge guards our exit. Hunk, Lance, fund some way to take down that ion cannon.  _

 

The doors to the ship open and I hear Lance ask, “Pidge, what’s your ETA?” 

 

“We’re in.” She whispers. 

 

Suddenly, I see a purple light come from the ship and I hear Hunk ask, “What’s that thing?” 

 

“I think that’s our signal to get out of here!” Lance exclaims, and the bpth dodge the blast of purple light that is aimed for them, and I lean over in anticipation hoping they got out of there alright. 

 

“How’s everyone doing?” I ask Team Voltron, checking in. 

 

Lance, ignoring my question says as their space fighters come out of the big ship, “Hunk, you dismantle the ion cannon while I take these jerks on a space ride.” 

 

“Ten-four.” Hunk confirms. They both continue to fight the fighters while trying to get to the ship. 

 

“Allura, Coran, can I have a line to Pidge please?” I ask the Princess. 

 

“Coming right up Elena.” Coran tells me. Once the line is established he says, “You are good to go.” 

 

“Thanks.” I say to him, grabbing the headset he was offering me. “Pidge, it’s Elena. How’s everything going in there?” 

 

“It’s pretty quiet. I’m just hoping we can find Matt in here.” she responds quietly so that the others don’t here her. 

 

“We’ll find him.” I say quietly. “Remember, it might not be today, and if it is, then we have found him. But if we don’t we keep looking until we have searched this entire galaxy for him. Alright?” I tell her. 

 

She takes a moment before responding, “Alright.” 

 

Voices come through the background, and I can hear Shiro say muffled, “I’ve been here before. After I was taken by the Galra cruiser on Kerberos. They brought us here.” 

 

“So, that means your other crew members but be held captive here. We’ve got to rescue them!” Pidge exclaims. 

 

“Pidge, we don’t have time. We have to get the Red Lion and get back to Arus.” I hear Shiro say. 

 

“Kate, I agree.” I whisper into the headset. “Remember what I said, alright?” 

 

She doesn’t listen to me and says, “But we can’t just leave prisoners here!” 

 

“Look no one understands that more than me, but in war we have to make hard choices. Now let’s get moving.” Shiro says, putting his foot down. 

 

“No!” Pidge exclaims. 

 

“Hey!” I say calmly into the headset, “Pidge, calm down.” 

 

“Commander Holt is my father. He and my brother were on the Kerberos mission with you.” she says.  _ Oh Katie, you just gave yourself away… _

 

“Commander Holt is your father?” Shiro asks surprised.

 

“Yes! And Elena and I have been searching everywhere for my brother and I’m not going to give up looking when we are this close! I won’t!” She exclaims.  _ Way to pull me into it. _

 

“I’m coming with you.” I hear Shiro say, and my mouth widens in surprise.  _ Thank you Shiro. _

 

“I’m going to sign off now Kate. Give me as many updates as you can.” I tell her through the line. 

 

“I will.” she whispers. 

 

“Can you put Shiro on for a split second?” I ask her. 

 

“Oh, sure.” she says surprised. “Shiro, Elena wants to talk to you.” 

 

I hear the static of the earpiece and I assume Pidge connected us. “Elena?” Shiro’s voice asks. 

 

“Hey.” I breath out. “Do me a favor would you?” 

 

“Sure.” 

 

“Take care of Pidge. He’s like my best friend.” I tell him. 

 

“I promise.” he responds. 

 

“Now go and try and find those prisoners.” I tell him, and the line cuts off in response. 

 

I tell Coran to cut the line with Pidge with a hand motion before asking him, “Could you connect me to Keith?” Coran nods and gives me the go ahead when the line is available. “Hey little brother.” I say softly. 

 

“Elena, now’s not a good time to talk.” he says to me out of breath. 

 

“I know, I know.” I pause. “I know that Shiro went off with Pidge. I know you're alone right now. But let me be here until you get to the Red Lion, okay? You don’t deserve to be by yourself right now.” 

 

“Thanks E.” he says after a moment of silence. “Great, now which way.” I hear him mutter to himself. 

 

There’s silence besides the sound of Keith’s heaving breathing. “Keith, are you alright?” 

 

“I’m fine. I just saw a Galra guard and I had to run the other way.” he tells me. 

 

“Particle barrier up!” I hear Allura exclaim. 

 

“Is that supposed to happen?” I ask, pulling the mouth speaker away from my mouth.

 

“We’re going to check.” Allura tell me. 

 

Allura and Coran go on about how the crystal is out of alignment and I watch the mice run past me and into the little hole that the crystal resides. They fix the crystal and the dashboard on the pad lights up. I watch Coran struggle to mind-meld with the mice, and stifle a laugh when it doesn’t work. 

 

“What’s going on over there?” Keith asks. 

 

“Just Coran making me laugh.” I tell him, a but of laughter escaping my lips. 

 

I hear his footsteps and then I hear him groan in frustration. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” 

 

“Calm down and take a deep breath. Now what’s going on?” I ask him. 

 

“I keep landing up at this same intersection!” he exclaims. 

 

“Deep breaths little bro.” I tell him. 

 

He breathes out, “Patience yields focus.” He’s quiet for a moment before confidently saying, “Gotcha.” 

 

“Go get em baby bro.” I tell him. 

 

I hear him run down a series of hallways before saying, “I’m here.”

 

“Go get that Red Lion’s respect. I’ll be here when you get back.” 

 

“I love you E.” my brother says to me. 

 

“I love you too Keith.” I tell him, and the line shuts off. 

 

I watch Hunk and Lance fight off some of the Galra fighters, but something else catches my eye: Galra guard flying out of the airlock. And following shortly after them was a paladin body. 

 

“Keith!” I yell, sprinting to the screen. But he doesn’t float for long because the Red Lion takes him in his mouth and brings him to safety, and I let out a breath that I didn’t know I was holding in. 

 

When they all get back, I meet them over where the Black Lion was being stored, I sprint over to Keith and hug him. “E, I’m alright.” he whispers to me. 

 

“You scared me. Don’t ever do that again.” I tell him, my voice shaky. I pull away and hug Pidge next. “We’ll find him next time.” I whisper to her. When we pull away, I ruffle her hair before hugging Lance. 

 

“I could get used to this.” He teases. 

 

“Shut up Lance.” I say, shutting him down. I hug Hunk, who’s hugs are the best, since he’s a very cuddly guy. Next, was Shiro. I wrap my arms around his middle, which tenses up when it comes contact and say, “Thanks for keeping them safe.” 

 

His arms wrap around my body warmly and says, “You’re welcome.” 

 

“No go get your Lion.” I tell him, pulling away. 

 

I turn to walk away like everyone else does, but his voice stops me. “Stay, please.” 

 

I nod and he walks into the middle of the Red, Blue, Green and Yellow Lion, and I watch as they all light up before opening the door to where the Black Lion was being locked away. All of the Lions roar and I almost have to cover my ears, but I smile since this was the moment that we all have been waiting for. 

 

Suddenly the lights in the room go red and Allura exclaims over the intercom, “Sendak as entered the Arusian atmosphere! We need Voltron, now!” 

 

Shiro looks back at me, and I nod towards his Lion. He enters the Lion, ask do all of the other Paladins, and I run back to the control room to Allura and Coran. Suddenly, a big energy force hits the castle, breaking the particle barrier, nearly knocking me off my feet. 

 

“The barrier gets weaker with every blast! Once that shield goes down the castle will be defenseless!” Coran exclaims. 

 

“I can give you cover with the castle defenses for a while. But you have to form Voltron now!” Allura tells the paladins. “Or we’ll all be destroyed!” 

 

Another blast knocks me completely to my feet, and Coran helps me up. “Thank you.” I tell him. When I get up, I use the panel for help, and suddenly it glows blue when I press the button. Another panel arises from the ground, one that looks like a control module for a fighter ship. 

 

“How did you do that?” Allura asks in awe. 

 

“I...don’t know.” I tell her. “But I think I know how to use it.” I sit down in one of the control chairs and put on the comms system and press a few buttons that seemed familiar, and started shooting down some of their fighters. 

 

“Good, keep going Elena.” Allura encourages, and I keep shooting the fighters that were in the way of Voltron. 

 

“Wait, Elena?’ What are you doing?” Keith asks surprised. 

 

“Saving your asses.” I mutter as I shoot another fighter out of their way. 

 

“Does anyone have any ideas of how to form Voltron?” Keith asks, since I am still linked to them. 

 

“Maybe if we fly in formation we’ll form Voltron.” Shiro suggests and I watch as they do that but get stuck in the tractor beam of the Galra ship. 

 

Another blast from the Galra ship hits us once again and I hold onto my seat as it hits. I continue to shoot down their fighters after I regain my balance. 

 

“Boys, listen to me.” I tell them, and I stop shooting for a moment. “The only way that you can do this is to believe not only in yourself, but in the team. Believe in Allura and Coran, and maybe even me. Believe that you can save the galaxy and the ones that you love. Believe that you can form Voltron. Trust that your Lions can form Voltron. Trust in another. I know you can do this.” I tell them. “You are the universe’s only hope.” 

 

I watch as the Lions get in sync and a bright light emerges just like in the vision that we had before finding the Blue Lion. Out of the bright light, a giant robot warrior emerges, containing all of the Lions together. 

 

“I can’t believe it!” exclaims my brother.

 

“We formed Voltron!” Pidge yells. 

 

“I’m a leg!” Hunk exclaims and I laugh at his comment. 

 

“How are we doing this?” Lance asks. 

 

Their comm cuts off for a moment and I watch as they make the alien ship explode as they destroy it. 

 

“You guys did it.” I breath into their comms. 

 

The all disband Voltron and exit their Lions. I follow Allura and Coran outside to meet them where Allura congratulates, “Good work paladins.” 

 

“Thanks pretty ladies.” Lance says to us. 

 

“We did it.” Shiro exhausts. 

 

“Heck yeah we did.” Keith says happily, and I put my arm around him fondly with a smile. 

 

“How did we do it?” Shiro asks. 

 

“I was screaming the whole time, maybe that did it.” Hunk says, struggling to get off his helmet. 

 

I turn my head to Pidge, who looks sad. I unwrap my arm from Keith move over to Pidge and kneel, wrapping my arm around her torso. Shiro notices this as well and puts a hand on her shoulder. “We’re not going to stop searching until we find your brother and father. Wherever they are. I know they would be proud of you.” he says to her.

 

“I know I am.” I tell her. 

 

“We’ve won the battle, but the war has only just begun. I’m afraid Zarkon won’t stop until he gets these Lions.” Allura speaks. 

 

“Good thing you paladins know what you’re doing. Because you’re going to have to form Voltron again and again.” Coran speaks up. 

 

“Totally. Wait what?” Hunk asks. 

 

“I can barely survive forming Voltron this one time.” Lance whines. 

 

“And you only had to fight one ship. Wait until you have to fight a whole fleet of them.” Coran continues. “That’s not going to be easy, being the Defenders of the Universe.” 

 

Everyone’s eyes go wide, including mine in amazement, and Shiro says, “Defenders of the Universe huh? That’s got a nice ring to it.” Everyone looks at the Lions in amazement. 

 

One by one each boy, and girl, head off to bed to recover from the day’s adventures. Once it is just me and Keith in the dark, he asks, “I’m heading off. Are you coming?” 

 

“I’m going to hang out here for a little bit. I’ll be in soon.” I tell him a small smile on my face. 

 

“Alright. Goodnight.” he says with a hug. 

 

I watch him go inside before making my way over to the Lions, especially the Red Lion. I put my hand on it’s large foot and tell it, “Thank you for saving my brother today. I don’t know what I would do without him.” 

 

_ Without him, the universe would be in turmoil,  _ his voice speaks, and I am shocked I can hear Keith’s Lion. 

 

_ The universe would be great danger without you, Guardian of Voltron,  _ the Black Lion speaks to me. 

 

“What did you just call me?” I whisper. 

 

_ The Guardian of Voltron. Do you know what that is Elena?  _ The Black Lion asks. 

 

“No, I don’t.” I whisper. 

 

_ You are the Protector of the Defenders of the Universe. The one with more quintessence than any of the Lions of Voltron have. _ The Black Lion explains.  __

 

_ You’re scaring her. Let her process this. _ I turn my head, and the Green Lion is speaking now. 

 

_ She needs to understand what’s at stake.  _ The Black Lion responds. 

 

_ Let her have the night to process, she just helped our paladins win a battle.  _ The Blue Lion jumps in. 

 

There is silence, which mean that they all are in agreement. “Thank you for this, and for helping out my friends.” I tell the Lions. 

 

I go to turn around when the Black Lion’s voice stops me.  _ You will need to take care of my paladin the most. He needs someone like you.  _

 

“Why?” I ask him, but he doesn’t respond. 

 

“Elena? What are you still doing out here?” Shiro’s voice asks, making me jump. 

 

“I-”I start, looking back at the Lions. “It’s nothing, I was just looking at the stars.” 

 

“Come on, let’s go inside.” he says, extending the invitation. I nod and follow after him, not without one last look behind me at all of the Lions. 

 


	6. Chapter Six (Some Assembly Required)

“Elena, you’re room shall be near mine, so that you don’t have to deal with boyishness of the the paladins.” Allura tells me as we walk down one of the many hallways in the castle later that night. 

“Thank you Princess Allura.” I tell her. “But I don’t mind.” 

“You may call me Allura if you like.” she says, giving me a small smile. 

“Only if you promise to find me a nickname one of these days.” I tease to her. 

“Deal.” She smiles. 

We get to a grander hallway and she leads me into one of the suites. I gasp in awe. “Allura, it’s beautiful, thank you.” 

“You’re welcome.” she says. There is a moment of silence, and I take in the futuristic architecture. “There is one thing that has been troubling me about you.” She speaks. 

“What is it?” I ask her concerned. 

“How did you get the fighter simulator to arise? Only my father and Alteans who have a great amount of quiescence could bring them up.” She tells me.

“I-I don’t know.” I tell her truthfully, sitting on the soft bed. “It shocked me too when it happened. But I hope with whatever is happening, I hope it can help us defeat Zarkon and the Galra Empire.” 

“I believe it can, if we figure out what it is.” she says with a smile. “I will let you get some sleep after this long day. I shall see you in the morning.” 

“Good night Allura. Thank you again.” I tell her with a wave, and she shuts the sliding doors with a smile, making an exit. 

I find my bag at the foot of my bed, and I open it, and after finding my change of clothes, a tank top and athletic shorts, I change out of my disgusting shirt and jeans. I go to the adjoined bathroom and splash water onto my face, clearing it of the sweat that had formed on it. I move back into the other room and lay on the bed and try and shut my eyes, but sleep never comes, like always. 

The clock, or what I assume is a clock, shows that it is in the deep hours of the night, how I know that I don’t know. Sitting up, I swing my legs over the side of the bed, and grab my bag, and pad my way to the door. I go down the hallway that Allura and I came to get to my room, and it leads back to the control room, and I make a note in my mental map of where this room is in relations to my room. I go down another hallway and I open a door, which seems to be a training room. I walk into the dark room and the lights go on, and the room is vast and white. 

I find the observation deck and when I get up there, I see all different technology. Seeing something that was familiar to me, I pull out my mp3 player that Pidge made me with a playlist with all of my favorite songs on it, I plug it into the aux cord. I turn the volume down so that it isn’t as loud so I don’t wake up some of the paladins. I take the remote that I find that controls everything in the room down with me, along with my bag, and I start to stretch to the music. 

I press a button on the controls and a small armory comes out, and I pick a sword to train with. I press another and a training bot comes, and I start the first level of the bot. I admit it was hard, but once I find out that it takes a few seconds to change it’s attack, I go in for the kill, so to speak. 

I take a break and turn off the bots. I lay down on the training room floor and take in deep breaths, so that I can steady my erratic breathing. I sit up carefully, before wiping the sweat from my forehead with the back of my hand. 

Can the Lions really speak to me? I think as I run my hands through my ponytail. What did they mean, that I am the Protector of Voltron? Could they be right about me? 

I stare at the wall for a moment as the music on my playlist continues, and then turn away because of the bright white walls.I turn off the music and return the remote back to the control room, and I pick my bag back up and leave the training deck. 

I decide to turn left and wander down the hallway, and I seem to end up in the sleeping quarters of the paladins. As I am walking, I hear a muffled shout come from the room I just pass, and I backtrack, ready to fight. I open the sliding door, and I see Shiro tossing and turning in bed, looking distraught. 

“No!” he exclaims as I come closer to him. 

“Hey, hey. Shiro. You’re going to be alright.” I say to him softly, sitting down at the foot of his bed. “I’m here.” He continues to be restless, and I put a hand on his arm, trying to shake him awake. His robotic hand grabs my hand harshly, and I wince in pain. I try to pull it away, but it still causes me pain. “Shiro, let go.” I struggle out. 

His eyes snap open and suddenly he is sitting up, pulling his hand away from my instantly, and I cradle my hand to my chest. “Elena, I’m so sorry. Are you alright?” he asks, taking my injured hand in his. 

“I’m fine Shiro. Really.” I tell him, gently pulling my hand away. 

“What are you doing here?” he asks. “And why are you still awake?” 

“When I couldn’t sleep, I thought I’d explore the castle. When I came down the hallway I thought someone was in trouble since I heard you yelling in your sleep.” I confess. “Do you want to talk about it?” I ask after a moment of silence lapses between us. 

“I’ve just been having recurring dreams whenever I close my eyes from when I was a prisoner on the Galra ship. But nothing is giving me any idea of what actually happened.” he tells me after a few seconds of silence. 

“I hope your memories come back soon Shiro.” I say positively, in hopes that he knows where Matt is, but I won’t push him to remember. 

“Me too.” there is another lapse of silence. 

“I’m going to go explore the castle. Want to join me?” I ask him. “It might clear your mind a little bit.” 

“How about I walk you to your room instead. We should really get some sleep anyway.” He prompts. 

“Sure.” I say uneasy. I don’t really sleep but I’ll do this to help Shiro. He throws back his blankets as I get up from the edge of the bed. We both walk side by side out of his room, and down the familiar halls of the castle. We pass by the training room I was just in, and I know that we are a short way from my room. We walk past various shut doors before we get to mine, and I open the sliding door. 

“This is really nice.” Shiro says, gawking at my room. 

“Allura wanted me near her I guess. I think this is where the royal guests used to live.” I tell him, setting my bag down on the bed. “It really is nice though.” 

“She must be warming up to having another girl in the castle.” he tell me, sitting down on my bed. There’s another girl in the castle, but Allura nor Shiro doesn’t know that yet. “Can I ask you something?” 

“Depends on what it is.” I sit down next to him. 

“Did you know Matt Holt and his father?” he asks. 

“Matt is my best friend. I don’t know if you know this but Keith is my brother. When he went off a year and some months ago, the Holts became my second family.” I reveal. 

“I kind of knew that you were siblings. You both look so much alike.” he tells me. 

“Why didn’t you say anything?” I ask him softly. 

“I figured that you would tell us when the time is right.” he says with a shrug. 

“Well, I should thank you for not saying anything.” 

“And I should thank you for taking care of me tonight. I don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t there.” He retorts. 

“I wouldn’t have stood by and left you to go through that by yourself.” I say softly. 

Things are silent between us for a few moments. Then he speaks, getting up, “I’ll let you get some sleep, you don’t know what kind of day that we’ll have tomorrow.” 

“I’ll see you in the morning Shiro.” He turns to go through the doorway, but I think of something, “Shiro?” 

He turns. “Hmm?” he hums. 

“If you ever need a person to hear you out at night, you’re always welcome here.” I tell him. 

“Thanks Elena.” he says softly, before turning and exiting my room. “You are always welcome with me too.” 

“Goodnight Shiro.” I whisper when the door shuts.


	7. Chapter Seven (Some Assembly Required)

I watch as the sun on this planet rises, before heading down to the observation deck, where Coran and Allura were waiting. “Ah Elena! Slept well I hope?” Coran asks when he spots me. 

“I did. Thank you Coran.” I tell him with a smile. 

“You are just in time for us to wake the paladins. Would you like to join us?” Allura asks. 

“You two go on ahead.” I say passively. 

They both press a button, and a loud beeping sounds throughout the castle. “Everybody up! Zarkon’s attacking! The castle’s about to be destroyed! Go, go, go! We need Voltron now! Hurry! We can’t survive much longer!” Allura says into the speaker system, and I shake my head at the two Alteans. 

“You’ve got to sell it a bit more.” Coran tells her. He takes the comm system from her and exclaims into it, “Oh no! Allura’s dead! Ah, it’s horrible! Her head fell off! Wait her severed head is trying to speak to me! What is it Allura’s head? What are your final words?” he cries. 

“Coran.” Allura and I say warningly, my eyes flying to the entrance of the observation deck. 

“Oh yes Princess, I’m listening.” he says sadly. 

“It’s over.” I tell him, as I watch the paladins. 

“Oh, I know! If only Voltron had been formed!” he cries. He stops from his theatrics and sees all of the paladins. “Oh, time! 

“I guess this isn’t an actual attack.” Shiro observes, and I notice he is the only one in his paladin uniform. 

“And it was a good thing it wasn’t. Because it took you-Coran?” Allura says frustrated.

“Seventy-five degrees.” He says, looking at his thermometer. “Oh, sorry this is a meat thermometer.” 

“However long it was, it was too long. You must always be ready to do battle with Zarkon. Look at you, only Shiro’s in uniform. Keith, Pidge, Hunk, where are your bayards? And where’s Lance?” Allura scolds. 

The door opens to reveal Lance in his, to be expected, robe and Blue Lion slippers. He yawns and says, “Good morning everybody. What’s going on?” 

“Coran and I have been up for hours getting the castle back in order. We haven’t tested the alarms and decided to test you as well. Guess which one failed.” She deadpans, and the paladins look scared. 

“Hey, you got to sleep for ten thousand years man. Monday night I was on Earth. Now I’ve flown through space, fought some evil alien named Zarkon, eaten some goo in a weird castle. That’s a lot to handle in...what day is today?” Hunk asks. 

“It’s the third quintet of the spacolian movement. Hump day!” Coran exclaims. It’s really Wednesday? How could have time gone that quick?

“It’s a lot to process.” I tell Hunk. “But we all have to be ready for when the day comes that Zarkon attacks. Because he will.” 

“You must understand the stakes of our mission.” Allura says, pulling up her tech. “Over the past ten thousand years, the castle picked up distress beacons from the following locations, so we have to assume that Zarkon has conquered the entire known universe.” she slides her hand. “Earth is here, and an attack on your planet is inevitable.” 

“Oh no.” I hear Hunk mutter. 

“Exactly. Our mission is to free all those planets. Coran and I are getting the castle ready to leave Aris. During that time you have to learn how to form Voltron, so we can begin fighting Zarkon.” 

“The princess is right.” I tell the paladins, and Shiro nods with my words. 

“Let’s get to our lions and start training.” He tells them. 

“Wait, but I want to talk to the prisoners from the Galra ship!” Pidge says. 

“Pidge-” I start quietly but Coran interrupts me. 

“Negative number five. I have you ranked by height if that’s alright. The prisoners need to remain in cryo until their replenished tomorrow.” 

“That’s right, now get to your Lions.” The princess commands. Each boy, plus Pidge, go to the entrance to their elevator tube that leads to their Lions. “Elena, could you try bringing the flight simulator back while we continue fixing the castle.” 

“Sure Allura.” I tell her. I go over to where they came out before when it happened, and I put my hand on the panel. This time, nothing happened. I try it again and again and yet nothing magical happened. “Why isn’t it working?” I mutter to myself, “What’s changed?” I take my hand off of the panel and stare at it, angry tears forming in my peripherals. Why aren’t you working? Maybe the first time was a fluke. Maybe I’m not meant to be a part of this. Be the Guardian of Voltron. 

“Elena, what’s happening?” Allura asks, breaking the silence after what seems like hours. 

“I can’t bring it up. I’ve tried.” I get out shakily, after taking a deep breath. She puts her hand on my shoulder comfortingly. 

“Maybe not now, but soon.” she tells me softly. “I believe in you.” 

“Thank you Allura.” I say, now looking at the Princess. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to go clear my mind.” She looks at me worried, and I tell her, “I’ll come back soon. You can start their training without me.” She nods and I give her a small smile before leaving the control room and down the hallways until I get to my room. I pick my backpack off of the ground and pull out the music player. I pull my hair up into a ponytail before grasping the music player tight in my hands. 

When I get to my destination, the training room, I go up to the control area and plug my player in with the familiar chords and take the wireless remote with me. When I get down to the main floor, I spot a familiar shaped button and press itm and the wall in front of me turns into a mirror, like in a ballet studio. I then press the play button, and the whole room turns into my own studio. 

Hope for Mourning by Icon for Hire comes out of the speakers and I am instantly thrown into the old routine of the dance I once knew. I remember the aggressiveness of the moves and throw my own emotions into it, mouthing the lyrics as well. Tears form in my eyes as I start to get tired and pant.

When the slow parts come, I take this as a chance to breath and let the tears fall. As the song ends, I do my last turn before falling onto the ground, my face in my hands, tears forming a pool in the cracks of my hands. You should have went in Matt’s place, a small voice in the back of my mind tells me and I let out another sob. 

Sorry by Halsey comes next on the shuffle and I have to pause it. I toss the remote on the ground and it comes down on the floor with a crack!, Allura’s voice comes through the comms. “Elena, could you come to the control room please?” 

I notice in the mirror that my body is glowing a faint blue. I blink and it goes away. Weird. I get myself up off of the floor wearily, before running up to the control booth and getting my music player, shoving it in my back pocket. I retract the mirror, not before fixing my face and appearance. I put the remote back where I found it and leave the training room. 

“Are you alright?” Allura asks when I arrive. 

“I’m fine.” I lie, and she looks at me softly but doesn’t say anything. “What can I do to help?”

“They guys are trying to create Voltron again. It seemed to work last time, but could you give them a bit of motivation?” 

“I can try.” I tell her, taking the headset that she was handing me. I put it on and I am suddenly connection to their feed. 

“Clearly, this isn’t working.” Shiro’s voice says. “Let’s set down for a little bit.” 

“Maybe we should be building Voltron from the ground up.” Keith says. 

“What do you mean?” Shiro asks. 

“I mean we try literally forming Voltron. Like stacking on top of each other.” 

“Like a cheerleader pyramid? Lance jokes. 

“You got a better idea?” Keith asks him. 

“It’s worth a try.” Shiro compromises. There is silence as they try and build Voltron, but it seems not to work. “Hunk, what are you doing?” he asks after a bit. 

“What do you mean?” 

“You’re supposed to be the leg.” Shiro points out. “Over there.” 

“What? No. No, the last time that we did it I was the head. Right?” 

“You yelled ‘I’m a leg!’” Lance exclaims. 

“Yeah, I was yelling a lot of things.” 

“Shiro’s the head.” Keith cuts in. 

“All the time?” Hunk asks. 

Finally, I thought it was time to step in. “Hey guys, Elena here. Just take a deep breath and try it Shiro’s way for now. If it doesn’t work, take a break and try again later. Make sure to bond with your lions and each other. Now, go form Voltron!” 

“Thanks Elena.” Shiro’s voice comes through, before cutting out. 

“I hope your pep talk works.” Allura says to me, with hope in her eyes. 

“Me too.” I mutter. 

Allura bring up the holoscreen and says, “Sorry to interrupt, but I may be able to help. Yesterday, you weren’t able to form Voltron until you were in the heat of battle.” The boys all agree, and I nod my head as she starts to press some buttons on the dashboard. “Perfect, because I need to run a diagnostic test on all of the castle’s defenses. This should help!” Once she is done pressing the buttons, a blue barrier surrounds the castle, and beams of blue light start to shoot out of it. 

I move over to the panel again and put my hand on it again, and to my surprise it works. “Princess, look!” Coran tells her, and both of them are looking in my direction. 

“You did it Elena, I knew you could do it!” she exclaims. 

“What did you do E?” Lance asks. 

“Did you need me to help shoot at them?” I ask her, pulling the comm away from my mouth. 

“If you would, please” 

I jump into the seat and place my hands on the controls, a screen coming up showing the outside of the castle, and all of the guys and their lions. “Sorry guys.” I whisper. 

“What are you sorry about?” Shiro asks through the line. 

“This.” I tell him before pressing down on various familiar buttons, and more of the blue beams are shot at the guys. 

They all start screaming and they all make their lions run away in the opposite direction. “Allura, what are you doing?” my brother asks. 

“Running a diagnostic test on the castle’s defenses, and Elena is testing out the fighter. And inspiring you!I believe in you Paladins, let fear be your guide! Form Voltron!” She exclaims before cutting out. 

“Well forget this, I’m heading back to the castle!” Lance exclaims, and I take this as the perfect opportunity to shoot at him when he turns back to the castle. He dodges all of my shots, and starts to get close to the barrier, when he bounces against it and rolls down the hill. 

“Please, stop, please, have mercy on us!” Hunk exclaims as I shoot at him. 

“Sorry big guy, nothing personal.” I say through the comms.   
“You think Zarkon is going to have mercy on you? He’s probably on his way right now to destroy us all!” she says, and presses a button. 

“Autolock engaged.” a robotic voice says as she walks away. 

“You can either stay and test them more if you want, or you can stop Elena.” Allura tells me. 

“Thanks Allura.” I tell her, before taking a few more shots at the guys. 

“Elena, stop, please!” I hear Shiro plead, and I take another shot at him, with a laugh. 

“E, please stop!” Pidge cries. 

“You’re lucky we’re all friends.” I tell them, before taking the headset off and stepping out of the simulator. 

I leave the boys to try and form Voltron. I go back to my room, to find a new change of clothes sitting on my bed. I put on the black tank top and grey cargo shorts, and pick up my backpack and bring it into the leisure room. 

As I wait for the boys, I go into the hidden compartment of my bag and pull out a tiny photograph of Pidge, Matt and I from when we were younger. I was shorter then, and Pidge had her long hair. My eyes zoom in on my best friend. “Oh, Matt. Where are you?” I whisper to it, my tears sliding down my cheeks and one lands on the picture. 

The doors slide open and the paladins, except Shiro, all file in. I turn away from them and wipe my face, before stashing away the picture. Lance lays down on the couch across from me, and Keith and Pidge sit on opposite sides of me, while Hunk is on the couch next to Lance. They all seemed exhausted. 

The doors slide open once again and Allura and Coran come through. “Are we at full power at condenser number five yet?” she asks him. 

“No, still just 84 percent.” he responds. 

When she sees the boys, her eyes light up. “You did it! You formed Voltron!” 

“No, Elena stopped shooting at us and the particle barrier shut down so we just just flew in.” my brother says, giving me a look. 

“What?” she asks angrily. 

“Sorry Princess, but I had to turn off the castle defenses to test the fire suppressors.” Coran says apologetically. 

“What are you guys doing in here? We’re not taking a break.” Shiro says, coming in from the opposite side of the room. 

“He’s right.” I say at the same time that Allura tells the boys: 

“Shiro’s right, you should be training.” 

“We’ve been training. When are we going back to Earth?” Hunk asks. 

“I’m not going back until I find my family.” Pidge says. 

“Guys, there won’t be an Earth if we don’t figure out how to fight Zarkon.” 

“How are we going to fight? We can’t even figure out how to form Voltron.” Lance points out. 

“Well I’m not surprised. The original paladins fought hundred of battles together. Side by side. They were like a pack of yelmors linked at the ears.” Coran explains. 

“Wow.” Lance deadpans. “Yeah, that’s definitely not us.” 

“During the last attack, your survival instincts forced you to work as a team. Well, that will only get you so far. You’ll have to become a team if you have any chance of forming Voltron and then beating Zarkon next time. You should try working out at the training deck.” 

“It’s very helpful.” I chime in. 

“There’s a training deck?” Hunk asks. 

Everyone decides to leave the room, but I stop them before the can cross the doorway. “Guys, I hope you know that me shooting at you, wasn’t to hurt you. We wanted to test the flight simulator and help you form Voltron. I’m sorry.” 

“It’s alright Elena. You did it to help us get better.” Shiro responds, giving me a soft smile. 

“No hard feelings.” Keith says to me, giving me a hug, which out of the corner of my eye I see Lance scowl. 

Pidge, instead of responding to me, giving me a hug, and Hunk and Lance also decide to sandwich me into the middle. “Okay guys, can’t breathe.” I manage to get out and they all let go of me, and they pull away. We look at each other for a second before bursting out laughing, and soon enough, all of the paladins, including Shiro and Keith, were laughing. “Now go train before Allura has your heads. I’ll meet you guys there soon.” 

After watching the boys leave, I stay there for a moment, before taking the route to the training room. The mirror was nowhere to be seen, and the boys were in a circle, their backs facing each other. Coran was already trying to test them, and little robotic orbs came out of the panels of the wall and started to shoot at the boys, and thie put up their arm shields. I move towards the alcove with the weapons and I grab a shield and a long swords from the rack in case some of the robots attack me. 

Hunk and Pidge are the first to be shot at and are eliminated, leaving my brother, Lance and Shiro left. Keith ducks and Lance lets a robot shoot him, eliminating him, and then Lance is eliminated. 

Shiro gets distracted by this, and I see him getting shot at, eliminating him. I take my sword and shield and run into the circle and I block all of the shots and slice away at the robots. Once they are all gone, I wipe away the sweat that forms at the top of my forehead. 

“Nice job Elena! You passed this test!” Coran says through the PA system. I hear the rest of the paladins cheer for me and I look over to see a look of awe on their faces. I fall to my knees so I can catch my breath, letting the sword fall to the ground with a clatter. 

“Elena, are you okay?” Pidge’s voice asks. 

“I’m fine.” I say in between breaths. I hear two sets of footsteps run towards me, and I look up to see Shiro and Keith both helping me. 

“Wait, I want to help Elena.” Lance exclaims, running over to us. 

“Lance, we’ve got her.” Keith explains. 

“Let me help her Mullet!” 

“Lance, they’ve got it.” I tell him. Once I am up on my feet, Keith and Shiro let go of me. “I’ll be fine now guys, just go train.” 

“What will you do now?” Pidge asks. 

“I’ll watch you guys up with Coran.” I tell her. 

I walk up to the booth, and when I get up there, Coran is waiting for me. “How are you feeling?” he asks me. 

“Better.” I say with a shrug. 

“How did you learn to fight with the Altean longsword? The only other person I’ve seen handle it is King Alfor himself.” he asks after a moment of silence.

“I’m not completely sure. I just picked it up one time when I was training and it felt right.” I shrug again. 

He’s quiet for a moment before saying, “You should sit if you’re feeling weak.” He pulls me up a chair. 

“Thanks Coran.” I tell the ginger with a smile. 

He starts the next training exercise with the boys, where they have to lead each other through a maze in which they can’t see it, with someone else guiding them. The first pair was Keith and Lance, and I can instantly see that things were going to go wrong. Keith was up with Coran and I, while he was guiding Lance, who was down on the ground. 

When Lance finds out who is guiding him, he’s disappointed. My brother has to repeat his directions, but Lance doesn’t follow them. I wince as he hits the invisible electric wall, and I tell the others, “I can’t watch Lance hurt himself. I’m going to go find Allura.” 

“Make sure you rest yourself.” Coran tells me. 

Keith turns away from giving Lance directions, and tells me, “Feel better.” 

“Good luck with the training.” I say, and before I go back downstairs, I kiss his head, ruffling his mullet affectionately. I go around Lance, who was now freaking out at Keith, and out the sliding doors. 

I end up finding Allura back in the control room, trying out different parts of the castle to see if they are working. “Need any help Princess?” I ask her. “I know my way around technology.” 

“I wouldn’t want to impose…” she trails off, looking back at me. 

“I want to be of some use.” I tell her confidently. 

“If you could go check to see if the wall system in the lion hangar are online, that would be greatly appreciated.” she says with a smile. 

“On it.” 

I walk quickly down the hallway, two where the Lions were housed. I open the door to the hangar and go to the system on the wall, making sure everything was working. 

Elena, you’re glowing. The green lion speaks. You’re full of quintessence. 

“What do you mean?” I ask as I test the lighting. 

You’re radiating quintessence. She explains. 

Have you been in contact with any quintessence? The red lion asks. 

I turn towards the lions. “Not that I know of.”

It could be possible that you could have been born with this much quintessence and its just trying to expel itself . The green lion tells me. 

“But aren’t people who aren’t human have that? Like Allura?” I ask. 

I’ve never seen a human with this much quintessence. You’re definitely the Protector of Voltron. 

“Elena, how’s it looking down there?” Allura’s voice asks through the speakers. 

My eyes widen, and I respond back, “Everything is looking good even though its been out of commission for 10,000 years.” 

“Thanks for being a great help! You can take a break now if you like.” 

“What did you mean that it was as much that you have?” I ask, turning to the lions when her voice cuts out. 

“Elena? Who are you talking to?” Shiro asks, coming into the room, with the rest of the paladins following him. 

“Just myself.” I falsely explain. “I was just fixing the systems in here. All good to go!” I say quickly, before rushing out of the hanger. 

I run down the hall, and I turn my head to make sure no one was following me. “Are you alright?” Allura’s voice asks. 

I yelp in surprise, before realizing it was her. “I’m fine. You just scared me.” 

“You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.” 

“I’m fine.” I lie with a smile. I move past Allura and back down to the training room, where it was empty since the paladins were training in their lions. I take my mp3 out of the pocket of my pants, and go up to the empty control room, before plugging it in, and putting the playlist on shuffle.


	8. Chapter Eight (Some Assembly Required)

I get the sword and the shield from earlier, and I start up the training bot again, but now I am on level two. It was a bit harder than the first level, but I still managed to beat it quickly. As I was about to start the next level, Coran and Allura come in. “Elena, are you feeling better?” Coran asks. 

 

“What happened?” Allura asks. 

 

“I just got a bit tired from the training this morning, But I’m fine now, I just did the second level of the training bot.” 

 

“How are you on the second level already?” Allura asks. 

 

“Elena is very skilled with a blade.” Coran tells her. 

 

“It’s not that big of a deal, really.” I tell them both. “If you need me to leave the room for when the boys come back to train, I can go.” 

 

“Please, stay Elena.” Allura tells me. “The next exercise you could take part in. They all need to connect with each other mentally, and you can join them if you like.” 

 

“But I won’t be the one forming Voltron. Don’t they need to be more focused than me?” I ask her.

 

“It will help you focus and be a part of the team too.” she tells me. 

 

“If there is room for me, I’ll try it.” I tell her with a smile. 

 

The boys start to file in, and Coran gives them all a headset. They all sit in a circle in the middle of the training area and I sit between Pidge and Shiro, and I put my headset on too. “Now the most important part of paladin training is being able to meld your minds and focus on one thing: Voltron. Everything else has to fade away.” I close my eyes and I start to think of my life at home. I start to think of Matt, and the last time that I ever saw him was stuck in my brain. “This technique will be essential every time you form Voltron. So relax, and open your mind. No walls, no secrets between paladins. Come on everyone, clear everything. Now focus on forming your lion.” 

 

The memories start to become too much, the last time that Matt and I spoke wasn’t on good terms. I could feel the tears rising up, and I open my eyes and look above my head to see his exact face from the last time I saw him floating above my head. “I can’t do this.” I whisper. I rip the headset off of my head and leave it on the ground next to me. 

 

I get up from my spot and look at all of the boys concentrating hard on forming their mental Voltron.  _ They are all much stronger than I am. _ I watch as Pidge struggles with forming her lion, the picture of her and Matt turning to static. 

 

“Pidge, stop thinking of your girlfriend.” Keith scolds her. 

 

“Keith…” I start. 

 

“I wasn't’!” she exclaims. “Hunk was rooting around in my head.” 

 

“I thought we were open. You can look in my head hole.” Hunk says back. 

 

“Everyone has to be able to look in each other’s head holes.” Coran says over the loudspeaker. “Clear your minds.”

 

“I can’t let you guys see in mine.” I mutter before leaving the room before Coran could scold me. 

 

Running out of the room, I struggle to keep my tears at bay, the memory playing through my mind on a loop: 

 

_ It was the day that the crew was leaving for Kerberos. It was an emotional day, since my best friend was leaving me for who knows how long.  _

 

_ Katie, her mother and I went to the launch site together to say goodbye. I watched as Katie and Matt said their goodbyes, Katie emerging with Matt’s glasses, and his mother saying goodbye next.  _

 

_ “E, come here.” Matt tells me when he is alone again.  _

 

_ I engulf him in a hug. “I’m going to miss you Matty.”  _

 

_ “I’ll miss you too Ellie.” he tells me. “Listen there’s something that I’ve got to tell you.” He pulls away from our hug. _

 

_ “You can tell me anything, you know that.” I tell him.  _

 

_ “I know.” he pauses as if he was trying to decide on what to say. “We’ve known each other for a long time right?” He asks.  _

 

_ “Yeah, for almost ten years. Why?” I ask.  _

 

_ “Well, I’ve started to feel something other than friendship for you for the past couple of years.” he says, scratching the back of his neck.  _

 

_ “Matt…” I say, but before I could get another word out, his lips are on mine for a brief moment.  _

 

_ “I’ve been in love with you, Elena Kogane, for ten years.” he says when he pulls away.  _

 

_ “Matt, I love you, but you are more like my brother than anything.” I tell him with a sad smile.  _

 

_ “Oh.” is all he says, and my heart breaks.  _

 

_ “Matt…” I trail off.  _

 

_ “No, I’m fine. I should go.” he cuts me off. He turns his back on me and runs to the spaceship dock.  _

 

_ “Matt, I’m sorry!” I call, but he doesn’t turn back. I notice their pilot Shiro look at me as I call after him, but I look away, tears coming down my cheeks.  _

 

_ “What was that all about?” Katie asks me, but I can’t respond.  _

 

_ I might have just lost my best friend. _

 

I find myself sitting outside for most of the afternoon, that memory playing around over and over in my head. When I am done crying, I decide to go join the others. They are all sitting around the table when I get there, looking exhausted. I sit down at the open seat near Shiro, and I could feel everyone’s eyes on me, but I ignore them. Coran explains that he made focusing food for the everyone, and I could feel my stomach grumble at how good it smells. I go to pick up my spoon, and before I can take a bite of the food in front of me, Coran whips out a remote that brings a ring up to connect us all. 

 

“Hold the phone!” Lance exclaims. 

 

“I saw a lot of individual performances today. But you’re still struggling to work as a team.So welcome to the final bonding exercise of the day.” Coran explains.  

 

I watch Hunk struggle before he tells the redhead man, “Coran, I want you to think about what you’re doing.” 

 

“This one’s a classic. You get to feed each other. Like a pack of yelmors.” 

 

As everyone starts to eat, I can feel the tugs from down the line that everyone was struggling. I gently pick up my spoon with my left hand, that was attached to Shiro, and move it over to my right hand, and I start to slowly eat my food, giving Coran a glare before shoveling in my food. 

 

“Are you okay? You left the training room pretty quickly.” Shiro whispers to me. 

 

“I’ll be fine.” I tell him after I swallow the green goo, which tastes better than it looks. 

 

Lance and Keith start to argue on the other side of the table, and Allura mutters angrily, “Do earthlings ever stop complaining?” 

 

“Can’t you just give us a break? Everyone has been working really hard today.” Shiro tells her and I nod my head in silent agreement. 

 

“Yeah, we’re not some prisoners that you can toy with like-” my brother starts as he stands. 

 

“Like a bunch of toy prisoners!” Lance exclaims, filling in for him. 

 

“Yes! Thank you Lance!” Keith responds to the blue paladin. 

 

“You do not tell at the princess!” Coran exclaims. 

 

“Oh, the princess of what?” Pidge exclaims and I gasp. “We’re the only ones out here and she is no princess of ours!” 

 

“Pidge Gunderson!” I exclaim loudly, but before I can scold her, a glob of food goo hits her face, and I look over and see that Allura is the one that fired it. 

 

Before I can even blink, Keith yells, “Go loose Pidge!” before taking a bowl of the goo and aims it at Allura, only for Coran to smack it away in her honor, and firing a lot of goo at everyone. 

 

I shake the good off of my face before immediately hiding under the table carefully, leaving my left hand up so I won’t pull Shiro under. I hear food goo splatter everywhere and I can hear a whole fight ensue. I come back up when I hear it has stopped, but I am met with a face full of goo from Shiro and Keith. I start at them for a moment before shoving a handful in Shiro’s face since he was the closest, and flinging a spoonful at Keith. 

 

They all look at each other for a moment before giggling, and I laugh too, despite the mood I am in. “Enough!” Allura yells, and we all stop laughing. “Do you see what you’re doing?” she asks. “You are finally working together as one!” 

 

“Hey, she’s right.” Keith notes. 

 

“I...actually don’t hate you right now.” Lance says to Keith and I smile. 

 

“You guys thinking what I’m thinking?” Hunk asks. 

 

“Let’s go form Voltron.” Shiro answers, lifting his arm up. 

 

They all agree, and Hunk says, “I was actually thinking dessert. But yeah, let’s do it!” 

 

They all start to move away, pulling me along with them, forgetting that they still were linked, and we all fall to the ground, dog piling on top over each other. I help up Shiro, who helps the rest of the paladins, and Coran lets us all go. 

 

I follow them down to the lion room, and I watch them all get in their lions.  _ Good luck everyone,  _ I project to the lions, but I am met with silence. I watch the black lion roar and they they all fly outside, and I run after them and land next to Allura and Coran, and I see Voltron form. “Yeah guys!” I exclaim with a fist pump to the air when Voltron lands on the ground. 

 

“I told you I could get them to do it. They just needed a common enemy.” Allura states. 

 

“It’s true. Like the old proverb says, a man can be driven to do anything if a beautiful women is just really, really mean to him.” I watch Allura frown, and I give Coran a squinted look before looking at the the giant robot warrior in front of me. 

 

A few minutes later the lions disband, and they all go to their hangers. I go inside when they do this, and sit in the common area, and they all start to file in once they are changed, Pidge and Shiro sitting on the same couch as me.. “Man that was cool!” Lance exclaims. “I’m so charged up that I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep tonight!”  _ Try not sleeping every night Lance. _

 

“No me, when my head hits the pillow, I’m going to be lights out.” my brother says to him. 

 

“Just want you to know that when we were in Voltron, we’re brother man!” Hunk says, hugging Keith and Lance. “You know, like we’re totally connected. No secrets, no barriers, no nothing.” I watch Shiro put his hand on Pidge’s shoulder, and she starts to pet the mice in between us. “Brothers all the way. I love you guys.” 

 

“G-forces mess with your head a little bit?” Keith asks Hunk, and I see Shiro get up from his seat. 

 

“Yeah maybe a little, I don’t know. It’s been a tough few days.” Him, Lance and Keith all get up. 

 

“Going to bed Elena and Pidge?” Shiro asks when he is halfway up the stairs. 

 

“In a minute.” She answers. 

 

“Good work today.” Shiro tells us, “we’re really coming together.” 

 

When he leaves, she pulls out the picture of her and Matt, the mice climbing up on her shoulders. “Hey, we’ll find them.” I tell her, wrapping her in a hug. “I know we will.” She cuddles into me, and I rub her shoulder carefully.“Come on, let’s get you to bed You’ve had a long day.” 

 

We both stand up and she leads me to her room, the mice leaving her shoulders. I give her a hug and she hops in bed and pulls the covers up to her nose, and says, “Goodnight Elena.” 

 

“Goodnight Kate.” I tell her. “I’ll see you in the morning.” 

 

“Make sure you try and get some sleep tonight.” she tells me when I am in the doorway, and I nod. 

 

I shut the lights off in her room, before heading down the hallway to the lion hanger. “Are you okay?” Shiro’s voice asks me as I pass by his room, the door open. 

 

“I’ve been better.” I tell him, stopping in the doorframe, my arm resting in the paneling. “I’ll be fine Shiro, I promise.” Silence engulfs us, and we are just staring at each other. “Can I ask you a question?” I ask after a lot of mental battles. 

 

“Depends on the question.” Shiro says with a laugh. 

 

“Do you...do you remember the day of the launch? I was there.” 

 

“Yeah, I remember. Why?” 

 

“Did you happen to talk to Matt after you had left?” I ask. 

 

“He seemed pretty upset, but I didn’t ask him.” he responds. 

 

“Oh.”I pause, then there is silence. “It’s been a long day. I’ll let you get some sleep. If you need me, you know where I live.” I say awkwardly. “Goodnight Shiro.” 

 

Before he can speak, I turn and leave, going down the hall. I wander the halls before I find myself outside again. I sit down and let my legs hand over the side of the building, and I stare up at the sky, the stars sparkling. 

  
_ I doubt you can hear me Matt, but I want to say I’m sorry. I wish you were here, I could really use my best friend right now,  _ I think out to the stars.  _ Wherever you are, I promise I will find you.  _


	9. Chapter Nine (Return of the Gladiator)

I’m awake to see the sunrise the next morning, the symptoms of exhaustion slowly becoming apparent on my eyes. Getting up from my spot, I make my way back into the castle, and I go back to my room to change into pajama bottoms and a tee shirt that I find in the drawers. I find my way to dining room when I am done, where the paladins should be. Realizing that it’s earlier, I decide to go into the kitchen and find some ingredients to make breakfast for everyone. 

I pull out what seems like eggs and milk from the refrigerator, and I find a bowl in one of the cabinets before mixing together the eggs and milk. I also include the food goo, before heating up a pan that I find and pouring the mixture into the pan, and I make enough so it can feed the paladins, plus Allura and Coran. 

“What smells good?” Lance’s voice asks from outside the kitchen. 

“Is someone cooking?” Hunk asks coming into the kitchen. 

“That would be me.” I say, turning around and raising my hand sheepishly. Hunk is followed by the rest of the paladins. 

“Anything good?” Hunk asks, his mouth salivating. 

“I’m making you guys eggs before you have to go train.” I tell him. 

“Why are they green?” Pidge asks, adjusting her glasses as she looks in the pan. 

“I put a secret ingredient in it.” I tell her. I am about to reach in the cabinet for a plate, when Shiro beats me to it. 

“Let me help you.” 

“Thanks Shiro.” I say, taking the plate from his grasp. I take the pan and scrape the eggs onto the plate with the spatula. I hear the opening and closing of cabinets, and I turn to find the paladins gone. 

I bring the big plate into the dining area, where the paladins were setting the table. “You guys didn’t have to do that.” I tell them. 

“You made us breakfast. It’s the least we could do.” Shiro tells me and I smile. 

“Who made breakfast?” Allura asks as she enters the room. 

“Elena did.” Keith tells her. 

“Thank you Elena.” 

“You’re welcome.” I say. I look down and see that there is an extra place setting at the table next to Shiro. “Who’s this for?” 

“We set that for you.” Pidge says to me with a smile. 

“You went through the trouble of waking up early to make us breakfast, we wanted you to experience this with us.” Hunk explains. 

“Aww thanks guys.” I say with a smile. “I’ll be right back.” 

I head back into the kitchen and grab the milk carton from the refrigerator, before grabbing a glass for myself. I take a drink, before turning away from the counter. As I am turning, I collide with a body, my glass of milk spilling all over me. “Oh my god, Elena, I’m so sorry.” I look up to see Shiro. 

“It’s fine, I guess that was the signal for me to change out of my pajamas.” I say with a laugh. “What are you doing in here?” 

“The paladins and I are going to train, but I wanted to tell you before you come out and find an empty table. And I wanted to thank you.” 

“It’s okay Shiro, it’s just breakfast.” I tell him. “And I’ll be alright on my own. Always have.” 

“Oh geez, I didn’t mean that.” he tells me. 

“It’s fine. You should go train with the others. I’ll be fine. I have to go change anyway.” 

“Again, I’m sorry about that.” he says. 

“Shiro, go train!” I exclaim, giving him a playful push. “I’ll still be here when you guys are done.” 

He gives me a smile before turning on his heels and leaving the kitchen. I laugh to myself at his behavior, before setting my glass down on the counter. I leave the kitchen quickly, and head down to my room to change my outfit so I am in clean clothes. I find similar clothes to yesterday, and I throw them on quickly so that the food doesn’t go cold in the kitchen. 

When I finish the space eggs, I start to clean up the dishes that the paladins left in their wake. I bring them all to the kitchen and put them beside the sink, before cleaning them one by one. When I am done, I clean up the kitchen briefly, before leaving it spotless. I find Allura and Coran in the control room a few minutes later. “I’m going to explore the planet a bit.” I tell them. 

“You don’t know what lives in this planet!” Coran explains. 

“I can handle myself Coran.” I say, rolling my eyes. “If I need you, I’ll comm you.” I say, tapping my right ear. 

“It might be good to have someone explore the planet that we have been inhabiting for the last 10,000 years.” Allura suggests. 

“I won’t be gone for long. When Voltron heads back to the castle, as will I.” I tell them. “I’ll be back, I promise.” 

“We’ll see you soon Elena.” Allura says to me, and I give them a wave goodbye. I exit the castle the way that we came in the first time that we found the castle. I put my earphones in and I look up and see Voltron forming through the trees, before I set off running in the direction that they fly. 

I guess this is my training too. 

I stop to take a breath maybe a half an hour later and take out my earphones, bending over my knees to catch my breath. I spot a foreign looking flower on the ground and pick it, before putting it behind my ear. 

As I breath heavily, I can hear a rustling in the bushes besides me, and I go into a fighting stances, ready to challenge whatever threat is behind the bush. Out comes a little creature, with a makeshift knife. “Oh hello.” I say to him softly, relaxing my stance. He doesn’t let up his stance, his sword still up, and I hold my hand out to him. “I promise I won’t hurt you.” 

Through the comms I can hear the boys talking about circling back to the castle, and I look up to see then doing exactly just that. When I look back down, the little creature is gone. I follow in the direction that Voltron is flying, and I make my way back to the castle right when the boys disband into their singular Lions. 

I beat them inside and sit at the dining room table like I never left. “Great job training you guys.” Shiro’s voice echoes as he enters the room. “We’re really getting the hang of Voltron.” 

“Seriously, how far do you think my Lion kicked that alien ship? Must have been a mile.” Lance says, crossing his arms, impressed by himself. 

“Yeah, that’ll come in handy when the Galra challenge Voltron to a soccer match.” my brother retorts.   
“Hey, I did something cool, and you can’t handle it. I get it.” Lance responds.

“You’re kick ruined our balance. We fell.” Hunk comes and sits across from me at the table, Shiro coming to sit next to me at the head of the table. 

“Well the falling part is Hunk’s fault.” Lance says. 

“Lance stop!” I exclaim at the same time Hunk exclaims, “Hey!” 

“Alright! Save your energy for fighting Zarkon.” Shiro interrupts, sitting himself down on the chair, relaxing in it. Then I realized: 

I know I’m the Guardian on Voltron, but I won’t be fighting Zarkon with Voltron. Why am I even here then?

My face must have changed, and I see Shiro looking at me from the corner of my eye, concerned. “Elena, are you okay?” he asks. 

“I’m fine.” I say quietly. I excuse myself from the table as Coran enters the room, carrying something. 

“Ah, Elena! How did your exploration of the planet go?” Coran asks me as I pass him. 

“It was fine, thank you. If you would excuse me.” I say, and I move past him. 

When I reach my room, I take my hair down from its ponytail, and I adjust the flower accordingly. I lie back on my bed and stare up at the ceiling. I’m not doing anything to help them defeat Zarkon. Maybe I should leave. 

But you promised Matt you would take care of Pidge, my inner mind speaks. 

In a split decision, I take my pack from underneath my bed, and sling it over my shoulder. Knowing that Pidge would be in the infirmary checking on the prisoners that the paladins found, I head there. When I get there, I find her sitting on the steps, near the healing pods. 

“Hey kid.” I say to her, and she is shaking her knee impatiently. She doesn't respond to me, so I go over there and sit with her, setting my bag down on the ground. The doors open agian, and Shiro comes in. 

“You’re just as anxious as me.” Shiro tells Pidge. 

“These aliens that we saved know something about my family. They have to.” she speaks. 

“I hope so.” 

“They recognized you didn’t they?” Pidge asks. “They called you Champion. What does that even mean?” 

“They did?” I ask, knowing I probably won’t get an answer, at least not yet.

Shiro looks down, puzzled. “I don’t know. I can’t remember very much from that time. The way those guys looked at me when we freed them, I don’t know if I want to find out.” The sleeping chambers begin to hiss and one of them starts to open. I stand up and move quickly over to the pod to help the one that was waking. 

They take a breath when it is fully open, and I grab a hold of them, and they fall into my arms. “Let me help you.” I tell them softly, they give me a generous smile. I walk them carefully down the steps and help them sit down, and Pidge throws a blanket around their shoulders. Shiro does the same thing with the rest of the rescued aliens. 

“So how long were you held captive by Zarkon?” Pidge asks, handing the alien a cup of tea. 

“Some for years. Decades maybe. It’s hard to tell. Time becomes a blur.” he says. 

“Then you must have been there when my dad and brother arrived. Sam and Matt Holt?” 

“I never knew their names, but I certainly remember the two earthlings that arrived with Champion.” he says, looking at Shiro.

“Champion? Why do you keep calling me that?” he asks. 

“You really don’t remember? Unbelievable.” he pauses. “You were a legendary gladiator, undefeated in the ring.” My eyes widen in response, and I move towards Shiro. “You beat an infamous Galra gladiator, known as Myzacks. That was the day that you earned the name Champion. I was there, as was the young earthling. We were all prisoners, forced to fight for the entertainment of Zarkon. That day, you were set to fight Myzacks, a vile beast that many thought that couldn’t be defeated. Slaughter waited us all.” he pauses. “This Matt, was the first of us sent to fight.” Matt, fighting? 

“But fate had other plans. You were so thirsty for blood, you injured your fellow earthling.” 

“What?” I whisper in shock. 

“You attacked my brother?” she exclaims. “Why?” 

“No, it can’t be true!” Shiro says in disbelief. 

“I was there. We all were.” The grey alien says. 

“After my brother was injured, where was he taken?” 

“I know not.” the grey alien responds. 

“I don’t believe it. There’s got to be more of the story. I-I couldn’t have hurt my friend. Wait, the ship that we were held captive on crash landed in this planet. They’ll have logs of some prisoners and information.” Shiro says. 

“Wait, I’m coming with you!” Pidge says. 

“I’ll be with you both in a minute!” I yell to her but she leaves the room before she could hear me. I turn to the prisoners with a soft smile. 

“If I may ask, you seemed very close with the earthling named Matt. Were you close?” the grey alien asks when they are gone. 

“We’ve been best friends since we were ten.” I say quietly. “I should be going. But I hope you all feel better, and I’ll try and visit soon.”

“Thank you Elena.” he says to me. 

“How do you know my name?” I ask. 

“Matt spoke of you fondly.” he replies, and I give him a sad smile before leaving. 

I end up catching up to Pidge and Shiro, they were already at their Lions. Pidge had already closed her Lion’s mouth, meaning she was ready to go. Shiro’s was open, so I climb inside. 

“I’m sorry, but there isn’t anywhere for you to sit.” Shiro says once he hears me arrive. 

“I can stand, it’s no big deal.” I tell him. 

You don’t have to stand. I have a seat for you Elena, the Black Lion’s voice echoes in my head, and I her a mechanical sliding, and the back of my knees are met with the seat of the chair. The small chair appears next to the pilot's seat. 

“Looks like my Lion has a different idea.” Shiro says, shocked. I sit down, and he starts up his Lion. 

A few minutes after flying, we end up where the ship crash landed. Shiro let’s me out of his Lion first, and I see Pidge waiting for us outside of the entrance to the rubble of the ship. “You guys might have to fly down there without me.” I tell them. 

“Let me take you.” Shiro says gently. 

“Fine.” I mutter, and his arms go around my waist protectively, before turning on his jetpack, flying down to the controls, and Pidge follows after us. 

When we get down there, he sets me down gently. “It looks like there is a master control board with no power.” Pidge says when she lands. 

“All you need is power?” Shiro asks. 

“Yeah, one that is compatible with Galra tech.” 

I watch as Shiro looks down at his left hand, and puts it in a fist, the whole arm lighting up purple. He puts his hand down on the control board, and all of the screens start to light up. At the same time, Pidge and I say, “Woah.” 

“I can’t believe you got this to work.” Pidge says to him. She starts to push a few buttons on her holoscreen, and then says, “My dad’s whereabouts must be logged in here somewhere. Once I download this information, I’ll find some way to decode it back at the castle.” 

There is a loud noise that sounded like it was coming from above us and I look up, gasping. “What…” Shiro starts. 

There was something coming into the atmosphere of Arus. “Oh no.” Shiro says. 

“What is it?” Pidge asks. 

“Something just entered the atmosphere. I’m not exactly sure what it is but it’s big, and Galra, and it’s coming right for us.” I tell her. 

“We gotta go.” Shiro says, starting to take his hand off of the tech. 

“Shiro don’t move. I’m only fifteen percent done, I’m not going anywhere.” Pidge says, putting his hand back down on the tech. 

“Pidge, it could be coming right for us. We need to leave, now!” I exclaim, starting to get scared. But she doesn’t listen to me, because she keeps watching the screen as the percent goes a bit faster. 

Shiro can’t wait for it to finish, because he takes his hand off of the tech, grabs Pidge and I in his arms, and flies us out of the ruins. 

“No!” Pidge exclaims. 

Once we are in the air, Shiro says into the comms, “Team come in. We need back up. Hello?” 

“Shiro?” Allura asks through the comms system. 

“Where is everyone?” He asks her. 

We land back down on the ground, and Pidge breaks free of his grip. “Shiro, let me go, my father” she struggles out as he stops her struggling. 

“What?” I exclaims, looking at, what I can make out is a ship, come flying down to the ground straight for us. Shiro starts to run, pulling Pidge along with him, and I run as fast as I can. It collides with the ground, causing a big explosion that sends me flying off of my feet. When I think I am about to hit the ground so I can fall to my death, two arms filled with the Black Paladin armor grab me and bring me into his chest. 

Coming to the rescue! The Green Lion says, and before I know it, Shiro and I are back in the Black Lion, Pidge being grabbed by the Green Lion. They bring us down to the ground, and once we are safe, they lift their heads up. I ended up grabbing Pidge, and Shiro still had his arms around me. I let go of Pidge, and Shiro slowly lets go of me. 

“The Lions just saved us.” Shiro says in awe. 

“I didn’t know they could do that.” Pidge says in the same tone. 

I happen to look behind me and I point, saying to the Black Paladin, scared, “Uh, Shiro?” They both look, and the ship starts to open up, a huge robot encased inside it. It seems to turn on, and it’s vision seems to beeline straight for us. 

“Get in your Lion!” Shiro calls distressed to Pidge. He takes my hand and we run back into the Black Lion. We both sit down in the chairs and Shiro turns on the controls, the whole Lion illuminating purple. We dodge out of the way as an electrical ball of purple energy comes straight for us, the ride becoming a bit bumpy. The ball of energy seems to be directed at Pidge, and Shiro moves his Lion to behind the robot creature. 

Pidge battles the ball with her laserbeam, causing a big explosion when they collide. The ball is stlll standing when the light fades, and the purple beam hits the Green Lion. “Pidge!” I exclaim, standing up as the Lion falls to the ground. The robot seems to come after her, and I say to Shiro, “We need to help Pidge!”   
“Already on it.” he says, pushing a few buttons and moving the controls so that the Lion bites the shoulder of the gigantic robot. He shakes us off, and soon we come tumbling down to the ground as well, and I fly off of my chair.

“You alright?” Shiro asks, pulling me back to my chair. 

“A little bruised, but I’ll live.” I tell him with a smile. 

“Lay down some covering fire so that they can get out of there!” my brother’s voice says to the comms. I watch as the Red Lion shoots its lasers at the creature. 

“I’m on it!” Lance’s voice says, and he too starts to shoot at the creature. 

‘Check this out! Battle Lion Headbutt!” Hunk’s voice comes through. I watch as the Yellow Lion literally headbutts into the back of the robot creature, knocking it to the ground. 

“You guy okay down there?” Keith asks us. 

“Still alive for now.” Shiro says. “I have to go rejoin the others, we might need to form Voltron.” he tells me. 

“Just let me out here. No offense, but I don’t think that thing is after me.” I tell him.

“Are you sure?” 

“I’ll be fine.” I tell him. 

Please let me out Black, I tell the Lion in my head. I hear the door open and I go down to it. Before leaving, I tell it, Protect him, please. 

Once I leave, I immediately run in the direction of the castle. “Elena, what are you doing out there?” Keith’s voice asks. 

“I ended up getting caught with Pidge and Shiro, and all of this happened. I’m heading back to the castle now.” 

“Be safe E.” he says to me. It seems like I am cut out of the Voltron feed because I don’t hear anything from the guys. I watch as the Lions roar in unison, and form Voltron in the sky. When I am far enough away, I hide behind a boulder. I watch as both the Red and Green Lions hit the robot creature, one after the other, it stepping back into a rock. 

“Go Keith, go Pidge!” I say, pumping my arm up in the air. The boys then take Voltron and hit down on the creature, but the creature uses its arm and uses the ball of light to hit them. It tries to do it over and over again, but the boys barely manage to dodge it each time. 

“Elena, what’s going on?” Allura asks.

“Voltron is fighting, what I can guess is, a Galra robot superweapon sent to kill us.” I tell her. I watch as Voltron turns to watch the orb of electricity, before getting sacked by the robot creature, near the Arusian village. “They are almost near the village Princess.” 

“We have everyone in a cave for safety. Are you safe?” she asks. 

“Define safe?” I tell her, peeking around the rock, to see Voltron fall down below to the village, but are saved by their jetpacks. “I’m hiding behind a boulder, I couldn’t get to the castle in time.”

They fly away from the village and towards me, and I hide when the robot runs past my boulder hiding spot. I watch as it throws an orb and Lance tries to power kick it. Tries, but fail miserably because it misses his foot and hit Voltron right in the head, letting Voltron tumble to the ground. 

I fumble with the earpiece, trying to get the boys back on, and when I do, I ask, “Guys, are you okay?” 

I don’t expect them all to answer me because Shiro says, “Pidge, fire lasers now!” 

“Got it.” She says. Her Lion does as she is told, and along with it she yells, “Fire!” But she pushes the wrong button and the shield comes up. “Nope!” She then starts to mutter to herself to get the right button. 

“Woah, lasers, lasers!” Shiro exclaims. She can’t get them in time and they are knocked back. 

“Everytime we are knocked back by that orb, we are blindsided by the monster. And everytime we focus on the monster, the orb hits us.” Hunk exclaims. 

“Then what do we do?” Lance asks. 

“Orb!” Hunk yells and they are hit with another one, this time landing on the rock I was currently hiding behind. 

“Shiro, we’ve got to move.” Keith says into the comms. “Shiro, are you there?” When he doesn't respond, Keith calls again ‘Shiro!” 

“That sound, I recognize that monster from my time at Zarkon’s prison. I know how to beat him!” Shiro says finally, I let go of a breath I didn’t know I was holding. 

The monster comes again, and Shiro dodges him, and it’s arm hits the top of the boulder, rocks and rubble raining down on me. I move quickly to the left side of the rock, where there was less debris. 

“Listen, there is a loud sound when the orb returns to the base of the weapon. And every third time that orb needs to charge up. That’s this monster’s weakest point. That’s when we strike.” Shiro tells the others. 

“Okay, what do we do in the meantime?” Hunk asks. 

“Defense!” When the monster throws the orb, Shiro calls, “Pidge, we need that shield!” and she puts it up. The orb bounces off of it, “That’s one, now two more to go.” The monster revs up again, and the orb is released, and it bounces off of the shield again. 

“We can’t take much more!” Hunk says as Voltron starts to fall back a bit. 

“Last one! Everyone brace for impact!” Shiro yells, and the orb hits the shield again, and the shield gets dismantled. When he sees that the time is right, he calls, “Now!” 

Keith makes his Lion shoot the lasers at the monster, and it is knocked over. But it starts to get backup and hits Voltron again. 

“When I attacked him before, I had a sword!” 

“Orb, orb!” Hunk calls. 

“We can’t take another shot like that!” Pidge says. 

Use the Sword my Paladin, I hear the Red Lion say to Keith. 

“Wait a second guys, I think my Lion’s telling me what to do.” Keith tells us all. 

“Whatever it is, go ahead and do it. It’s about to fire it’s third shot.” Lance tells my brother. The robot winds up another shot, and shoots it at Voltron. I hear Keith yell from his comms, and the Green and Red Lions form a sword, and slice the monster, and it explodes behind them. 

“You did it!” I cheer amongst the other cheering of the paladins. 

“How did you do that?” Hunk asks. 

“Woah.” Keith says with a laugh. “Thanks Red.” 

The paladins end up dismantling Voltron, and I see the Black Lion in the air. “Elena, where are you?” Shiro asks through the comms. 

I wave my hands in the air and say to him, “I’m waving my arms at you right now.” 

He lands the Black Lion, opens its mouth. “Need a ride?” 

“Thanks.” I say to him, and I climb in. My chair from earlier was still there, and I sit down in it. We fly back to the castle in silence. 

When we get back into the hanger, I turn to leave but he stops me. “Are you okay?” 

“I’m fine.” I tell him. 

“You’re bleeding on your forehead.” he points out, and I reach my fingers up to it to find the red substance pouring out of it. 

“I had barely even noticed.” I tell him. 

“Come on, let’s get inside.” he says, and we both exit the Black Lion. 

Once I was patched up and changed, I meet the others in the docking room where the former prisoners were getting ready to leave. “Good luck out there.” Lance says to the older one. 

“Thank you for everything. We never dreamed that we would see our families again. But you gave us hope. You gave the universe hope.” 

Once everyone leaves and the pod flies the refugees back to their home planets, I decide to leave and go back outside, only to find Pidge and Shiro talking. Deciding to hide behind a pillar, I see her hug him, I smile at how cute it was. All I could hear from the end of the conversation was , “You’re father and your brother would be proud of you Katie. Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me.” 

“He knows.” I whisper with a smile.


	10. Chpater Ten (Fall of the Castle of Lions)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey Guys, 
> 
> In honor of season 6 being released this morning, here is the next chapter of Lost!

The next morning when I am getting ready for the day ahead, Allura knocks on my door. I tell her to come in. “What can I do for you Princess?” I ask her. 

“Keith and Pidge told me that you are an amazing dancer.” she says to me. 

“Remind me kill them later.” I mutter. “I’ve danced for a number of years. Why do you ask?” 

“We are holding a party tonight for the Arusians to come and see that castle, as our allies. I want the paladins to have formal dance training for the future in case they need to attend any balls or parties with our allies. Would you be willing to teach them?” She explains. 

“I can do my best. I’m not the best teacher.” I confess, “Tell everyone to meet me at the training deck in fifteen minutes. “ 

“Thank you Elena, you are a big help.” she tells me and I give her a smile before she leaves. I find my mp3 player at the bottom of my backpack, before rushing to the training deck to set up. Once everything is plugged in, I put on Breathe by Mackenzie Ziegler as a warm up. I let everything go from the past few days, and put it all into the dance that doing. 

When I finish and the song pauses, I hear Lance say from behind me, “Woah, that was awesome!” 

I turn and see the paladins plus Allura and Coran watching me from the doorway, and my cheeks redden. Allura moves into the training deck, and says, “This is the reason that we have called you all here today. You need formal dance training if there are going to be any balls in your honor. I’ve been told that Elena was a great dancer, and she has agreed to teach you.” 

They all enter the room, and I tell them, “Okay, I want you to line up in this order left to right: Shiro, Keith, Pidge, Lance and Hunk.” They all do what I ask, and say, “Okay, so each of you will have the chance to dance with me so you can practice. But first, I will need a volunteer to help me demonstrate.” 

“Me, pick me!” Lance exclaims, waving his arms wildly. 

“Shut up Lance.” Keith tells him. 

“Just for that, Keith, get up here.” I sass. 

“Oh come on. This guy?” Lance complains. 

I ignore him, “Okay so we are only doing the basics today.” I think proceed to explain to them how to do the basic ballroom slow dance, along with dips and twirls. Keith basically knew what he was doing since I taught this to him when we were younger. “Alright, now we are going to one on one dancing now. When we are done, you may leave, or you can stay and watch to better yourself.”

I start with Hunk, and I have Coran start my playlist with slow songs on them. The song that comes on for him is Cigarette Daydreams by Cage the Elephant. Throughout the song, there are a few bumps, him stepping on my toes and almost twirling me into Allura, but he eventually gets the hang of it. “Nice job Hunk!” I tell him at the end. 

Next is Lance, and ocean eyes by Billie Elish came next in the shuffle. Surprisingly, Lance was very professional and he got the steps pretty quickly. The whole time, he gives me a goofy smile, I know Lance is thinking about giving me a pick up line. “Thanks for the dance pretty lady.” He says when we finish. 

Pidge is up next, and the next song is Forgiveness by Paramore. She seems to know what she is doing, since she took some of these classes with me when she was younger. Plus I would also make her be my test dummy with certain dances. She steps on my feet a few times, but overall she does well. 

I skip Keith because he knows what he is doing, and it just comes down to Shiro and I. We are the only ones left in the training deck, since everyone decided to leave when they were done. Even Allura had left, just leaving Coran to man the music on the upper level of the training deck. A Taylor Swift song, New Years Day, comes on for Shiro and I, and we start hesitantly. 

“Thank you for doing this for the paladins and I. I think we really needed something fun like this.” he says in my ear as we dance. 

“I hope I explained how to do it well enough.” I respond. 

“If most of them could pick it up quick, you did fine.” 

“Thank you Shiro.” I tell him. 

“You really are a good dancer though.” he comments.

I blush at the compliment, before saying, “Thank you, you’re not so bad yourself.” Once the song ends, it takes us a few seconds after it ends for us to let go of each other. “Well, I guess everyone is taught then,” I say awkwardly. “My job here is done.” 

“Will we see you at the party tonight?” he asks as I turn to leave. 

“Maybe.” I respond, before leaving the training area. 

As I am walking down to my room, Allura catches up to me. “Elena, you are coming to the party tonight, right?” 

“I’m going to try.” I tell her with a smile. “Why does everyone keep asking me?” 

“Well, you might need something nice to wear tonight. I have a variety of different dresses that look like the might fit you.” she tells me. 

“I wouldn’t want to impose Allura.” 

“I insist. After everything you’ve done for the team, you deserve it.” she says. “Why don’t we go to my room and we can pick something out.” 

I nod, and she leads me to our hallway, her room being a few door down from my own. Her room is much grander since it was made for a princess, and she leads me to her closet, which was a walk-in one. Dresses lined the walls, and shoes were above them. “Woah.” I say in awe. 

“Feel free to look through them all, and find a few that you want to try on.” She tells me. “And then later, I can help you get ready.” 

“Thanks Allura.” I tell her when she turns to leave. When she is gone, I run my hand along the dresses, hoping something would stick out to me. I find a black one that had a ton of glitter on it, and I pull it out. 

It was beautiful. 

I quickly change into the dress, it fitting me perfectly. I carefully make my way over to the mirror and gasp at my appearance. I’ve never really wore dresses, especially dresses that were made for a princess. The dress is black and has a halter top, and flowed all the way down so that it showed the curves that I have earned in my years of training. The bottom had lace that flowed behind me. 

I found a pair of black heels that were around my size, and they weren’t too tall that I was afraid I was going to fall over. 

“Elena, you look beautiful.” Allura tells me, coming back into the closet. “It’s perfect for tonight.” 

“Thanks Allura.” She leaves the room for a moment, and I take the opportunity to change, and I out on the clothes that I put on when I woke up.


	11. Chapter Eleven (Fall of the Castle of the Lions)

Hours later, the Arusians start to arrive, and I am still in my room, sitting on my bed with the dress and shoes on, staring at the picture of Matt, Pidge and I.  _ I shouldn’t be going to a party when he is still out there missing.  _

 

There’s a knock at my door, and I click my heels over to it to answer, the picture still in my hands. It was Shiro. “You look...wow.” he says, his mouth gaping open in awe. 

 

I feel my cheeks heat up, before responding, “Thank you.” 

 

“Allura wanted me to check up on you to see if you were still coming.” he tells me. He sees the picture in my hands and take sit from me gently. “We’re going to find him you know. You shouldn’t have to worry.” 

 

“I can’t help it. We’ve been best friends since we were ten years old. I shouldn’t go to a party when he is still out there somewhere.” I tell him. 

 

“He would want you to have some sort of fun. Besides,” he pauses, “you still need to test our dancing skills.” 

 

“Alright fine. Let me put that away.” I say, reaching my hand for the picture, and he hands it back to me. I quickly put it back into my backpack where I found it, before meeting Shiro back at the door. He offers me his left robotic arm, and I take it, and he leads me down to the ballroom. 

 

I feel all of the residents of the castle’s eyes on me when I enter, and I let go of Shiro’s arm wearily. “Are you okay?” he asks. 

 

“I’ll be fine. Go interact with everyone, I’ll be there in a moment.” I tell him.

 

I make my way to the bottom of the stairs and watch as the King of the Arusians tells the story of how Voltron saved their village, and some of the Arusians acted it out. 

 

Everyone cheers and Allura tells him once it is over, “Thank you, Your Majesty, for that wonderful production.  It saddens me that we must leave tomorrow, but we must continue our battle with Zarkon and spread peace across the universe. Your highness, please accept this gift. This will allow you to contact us anytime you need help. Arus will be the first planet in the Voltron Alliance.” 

 

“Hoorah!” The King exclaims, and the rest of his people cheer. 

 

I walk over to Lance,Keith and Hunk, and he says, “We’ve got to get something like that.” 

 

“Like what?” Lance asks. 

 

“You know, like a cheer. A team cheer that we do.” explains Hunk. 

 

“Hmm, okay. How about when I say Vol you say Tron, Vol…” he starts.

 

“Uhhh, Voltron?” Keith responds, confused.  _ Oh Keith. _

 

I laugh before spotting Shiro looking outside. I let Coran go over to speak with him, and I watch him walk outside. I walk to the door and look outside, and I suddenly have a weird feeling sitting in my chest. “Everything okay Elena?” Coran asks me, catching me off guard. “Worried about Shiro?” 

 

“Shiro can handle himself. I just have a weird feeling, but I’m sure it will pass soon.” I tell him. I spot Pidge walking around with a backpack, Rover following her. “I’ll be right back Coran.” 

 

As I walk over to her, I see she is putting some of the food that is floating by in her bag, as if she is going to save it.  _ Oh shit, she’s going to leave. _

 

“Pidge!” I call to her. 

 

“Wow, you look nice E.” she tells me, coming over. 

 

“You can thank Allura for that.” I tell her. “Have you got everything you need for your trip?” 

 

“How did you know I was leaving to find my dad and Matt?” she whispers harshly. 

 

“The backpack gave it away.” I tell her. “Have enough food and water, power in your Lion, blankets, extra clothes? Do you need someone to come with you, because I can go pack right now?" 

 

“Elena!” she yells, and suddenly all eyes are on us. “Stop mothering me! You have no right to, since you don’t even have a mother!” 

 

My heart sinks. “I can’t believe you just said that to me.” my voice quietly quivers. “Fine, if you want to leave, don’t let me stop you.” I pick up the skirt of my dress and run up the stairs past Allura, and quickly thank her for the party. 

 

I rush down the halls until I find the training room, and I quickly shut the doors behind me. I kick off the heels and find the panel with my sword and shield and start up the training robot, on the level that I stopped at previously. I fight the robot through the tears, and it starts to fight back more, until it has me on the ground. “Stop training session.” I tell the room, and the robot stops and goes back into the ceiling, where it comes from. I bring my knees into my chest and sobs wrack my body.  

 

The doors open, “What, came to yell at me again Pidge?” I ask, my head between my knees. But there is no answer. I look up, and Rover is there, staring at me. “Where’s Pidge?” 

 

Rover ignores me and leaves the room, like he didn’t even mean to be in here. A few minutes after he leaves, the castle starts to shake. “What’s happening?” I say, wiping my face and nose. The lights in the training room shut off, some emergency lights coming on. I stand up and rush to my room to get my comm unit. “Guys, come in. What happened?” 

 

When there is no response, I run to the control room, where Shiro was holding an unconscious Lance. “We have to get Lance to the infirmary.” Pidge says, and I flinch at her words. 

 

“Without the crystal, the castle has no power.” Allura says.

 

“He doesn’t look too good.” I croak. 

 

“Lion warriors, we need help, our village is under attack!” The King of the Arusians exclaims. 

 

“Let’s get to the Lions!” Keith says. 

 

“We can’t they’re sealed in their hangers.” Allura tells him. “There’s no way to get them out! We’re defenseless!” 

 

“Will you not help us?” the King asks. 

 

“We’ll help you we just…” he starts once he hears Lance come to. 

 

I kneel down to his height. “We’ll help your people the best that we can your majesty. We are just a little stuck for the moment.” 

 

“This is bad.” Hunk observes. 

 

“We have to get a new crystal to get the castle working again. But to get a new crystal, we need a ship.” Coran tells us. 

 

“The pod I was loading, we can use that.” Pidge says. ”I left the bay door open.” 

 

“I can use the scanner to see if there is a Balmera nearby. Hunk, you come with me. I’ll need someone big to help me carry the crystal.” 

 

“A Balmera?” he asks. 

 

“It’s where the crystals come from. I’ll tell you about it on the way!” The all jet off to the hanger bay. 

 

“I’ll go see what’s happening at the Arusian village.” Keith says. 

 

“I’ll go with you, Keith. I brought this on the poor Arusians.” Allura says. 

 

“I’ll tend to Lance and stand watch over the Castle.” Shiro says. 

 

“I’ll stay with Shiro and help defend anything that might come by.” I say, still grasping the sword and holding up the shield. “I’ve got this.”

 

I give Keith a hug, before watching him and Allura run off. “We need to move him.” Shiro tells me, and I nod. I watch him pick up Lance’s limp body and we walk him through the halls. We almost make it to the exit, but something is coming in. 

 

It was the Galra. 

 

“Sendak.” Shiro says, putting down Lance. He starts to run to him. 

 

“Shiro, don’t!” I exclaim, but he doesn't listen to me. I sigh before running after the Black Paladin. 

 

“Stand aside.” Sendak commands. 

 

“No, you’re not getting in.” Shiro defends, readying his hand. 

 

“Yes, I am.” Sendak replies, and he throws back his arm and charges at Shiro. His arm lurches forward and grabs Shiro, pulling him back. 

 

“Shiro!” I exclaim, and I raise my weapon and shield in defense. I run towards Sendak who has just raised his fist at Shiro, and he knocks him back more. I swipe my sword at Sendak, and dodge his robot arm’s attacks. Shiro comes back ad helps me, his arm fired up. Now we were both attacking Sendak from either sides. 

 

Shiro and Sendak’s hands come together in fists, and Sendak says to Shiro, “I see you spent some time with the druid. The do love to experiment. Too bad you didn’t get the latest model.” The arm disconnects itself from Sendak's shoulder and punches Shiro back to into the castle. “What are you going to do without your precious Black Paladin, little girl?” Sendak taunts me, turning around. 

 

“I can last without him.” I say with a shrug, and I take the opportunity to slash my sword at him, since he doesn’t have his arm back. I take a step back from the blow he just received from me but he calls back his arm, and stops my sword. He swings his arm at me, but I block him with my sword. He just gives me a smirk before moving to the entrance of the castle. 

 

“Oh no you don’t.” I mutter, and I run swiftly after him. 

 

H extends his robotic arm into the castle, so he can fight Shiro. He dodges it and falls onto the ground again. I run after him, but that was a mistake because Sendak picks me up with his robotic arm and throws me across the room.”Elena!” Shiro yells, but I get back up. 

 

Shiro gets back up from the ground and attempts to throw Sendak across the room, but he gets up and charges at Shiro. They were both at each other’s throats. Suddenly, I am being yanked backwards by an arm, and I see its partner throw Lance down on the ground. “Let him go or your friends won’t make it.” the voice says, and I look back to see another Galra, and one of his soldiers, holding me.  _ Just like the training simulator.  _

 

I elbow the robot into letting me go, and I raise my shield and sword in defense. I hear Shiro groan as he is thrown back onto the ground. “Voltron is ours.” Sendak says. 

 

“Did I give you permission to have it?” I sass the purple alien. 

 

“Won’t you stay down little girl?” Sendak asks.

 

“Because I’m a fighter. Always have and always will.” I tell him, and extends his robotic arm to swat at me like a bug. I dodge his attack. 

 

“Fire!” he yells at robot soldiers, and they start shooting at me as he walks away. I raise my shield in defense and block their fire, before attempting to slash at them. But I am immobilized by the remaining Galra man, who punches me in the stomach. When I am down, he lifts me up, just as the other guards were dragging Shiro and Lance away. 

 

When they get to their destination, the control room, the Galra throws me to the ground, along with my sword and shield, which is a few feel away from me. Sendak then says, “Power up the castle.” I watch the crystal turn purple, and it lights the castle up purple. “The lions are all in their bays. Raising the particle barrier. Begin launch sequence.” 

 

“No.” I whisper, and as quietly and quickly as I could, I struggle to get up. 

 

“Make contact with Emperor Zarkon.” He tells the other Galra. 

 

On the screen, Zarkon appears, and when his face appears, something feels slightly familiar in my chest. “Sendak.” 

 

“My mission is complete. I’ve captured the Altean Castle along with all of the Voltron lions, plus their human friend. I am currently preparing for launch and will be delivering them all to you shortly.” Sendak tells Zarkon. 

 

“This new is most pleasing. You have done your duty. Vrepit Sa!” he replies. 

 

“Vrepit Sa!” The call is disconnected, and as quickly as I could, I limp out of the control room without them seeing me. 

 

“Sorry guys.” I whisper when I am out of the door. 

 

I turn on the comms that I still have in my ear, and hear Pidge say, “Keith, can you hear me?”

 

“Pidge is that you?” my brother asks. “Where are you?”

 

“I’m here too.” I whisper on the way to my room. 

 

“Elena, are you safe?” he asks worried. 

 

“For now.” I tell him. “

 

“I’m inside the castle.” Pidge responds to Keith’s question. “Sendak has taken over and he’s preparing for launch.” 

 

“He’s got Lance and Shiro.”  I add. “I tried fighting him off, but he was too strong.” 

 

“Pidge and Elena, listen. If they’ve started the launch sequence, then we don’t have much time before liftoff to stop it.” 

 

“What do we have to do?” I ask, hiding quickly around the corner so the soldiers don’t see me.

 

“You have to get down to the main engine control panel and disconnect the primary turbine from the central energy chamber.  If you guys can do that, Sendak will have to reset the whole system. That might give us enough time to find a way to stop them.” 

 

“Pidge, if you do that, I’ll give them a distraction.” I tell her. “And try and stay safe.” 

 

“You too.” she says, before shutting the comms off. 

 

Looking around the corner, I see the Galra soldiers coming near me. I take a deep breath before stepping out into their view. “It’s the girl that escaped!” One said, and cocks his gun to shoot at me. 

 

“Catch me if you can suckers.” I taunt before running down the hallway that I was hiding in. I hide in one of the spare rooms, and I wait for them to pass before asking Pidge, “How’s it going where you are?” 

 

“I’m on my way there now.” she says. “Here Rover.” I hear her say to the flying robot. 

 

“Okay, if you need me, just yell.” I tell her before shutting it off. I peak my head out of the door to make sure no one is coming and I take a step out before feeling something being poked in my back. 

 

“We’ve got the girl. Coming to you now.” The Galra soldier says, and he pushes me ahead of him. One takes my sword and the other takes my shield. 

 

“Hey!” I exclaim, but they keep pushing me forward. 

 

“Okay Allura, I’m near the turbine. I think it’s started.” Pidge says through the comms. 

 

“Then you have to hurry. Cross the catwalk to the main column in the center.” Allura responds. 

 

“Okay.” Pidge says after a moment. I am almost in the control room, where Shiro and Lance are lying unconscious. 

 

“Now, open the hatch.” Allura tells PIdge. The Galra pushes me down on the ground where Shiro and Lance lie. “Find the central computer control hub and enter the following sequence…” 

 

“Wait, wait, wait, wait! Which one is it? All the labels are in Altean!” she exclaims. 

 

“Great, you found her.” Sendak says, and he comes over and lifts my chin up with his Galra hand. “You, my dear, are becoming a thorn in my side.” 

 

“Commander Sendak, we are ready for launch.” Haxus says. 

 

“I can’t tell which one it is! Allura? Allura? Elena?” Pidge calls.  _ Sorry, I can’t answer you right now.  _ The castle starts revving up for a few moments, and Sendak goes over to the screens. The rumbling stops and I sigh with relief.

 

“Pidge, whatever you did, I think it worked.” I whisper into the comms, still looking at the aliens in front of me. 

 

“Elena, what happened to you?” she asks. 

 

“Currently, I’m captured.” I whisper. 

 

“What did you say?” Haxus says to me. 

 

“Nothing. Just talking to myself like a crazy person.” I tell him with a knowing smile and I hear Pidge laugh on the comms.

 

“The main engine just shorted out!” Haxus tells Sendak and he becomes angry. 

A beeping comes from the computer, and I can see from where I was that Pidge was caught on screen. “We have a saboteur. Find him and take him out.” Sendak says. 

 

“No!” I yell in rage, and this wakes Shiro. 

 

“What’s happening?” he croaks, and I lift his head into my lap. 

 

“Pidge was our inside man. And now the Galra know he’s here.” I explain in a hushed voice. 


	12. Chapter Twelve (Tears of the Balmera)

The Galra take Shiro and Lance away from me, and they cuff Shiro and I’s hands. “Haxus, I want whoever’s in this ship terminated!” Sendak yells. 

 

“Commander Sendak, I’ve received a transmission generating from somewhere inside.” 

 

“There’s not much time before they get the ship running again. You must shut off the particle barrier so we can get in.” Allura’s voice echoes. 

 

“You got it. Tell me what to do.” Pidge says. 

 

“The particle barrier generator is beneath the main hull.” 

 

“She’s telling the intruder how to take down our defenses.” Haxus says. 

 

“Yes, but she’s also giving away his location.” 

 

“They weren’t yours to begin with!” I yell, struggling my hands, the cuff already being too big on my wrists. 

 

“Shut it!” Sendak yells at me and I stick my tongue out like a child. 

 

“Elena, please, just do as he says.” Shiro whispers. 

 

“Find that room. And kill that paladin!” he commands. “Repair the engine. Emperor Zarkon has commanded us to bring him Voltron. This ship will rise before the day’s end.” 

 

“Are we ever getting out of here?” I whisper. 

 

“We will. Allura and the others will find us.” Shiro says to me with soft eyes. 

  
  


“Can I tell you something?” I ask and I see his head nod. “When you and your crew left for the Kerberos mission, I promised Matt and Sam that I would take care of Pidge no matter what.” I pause. “I seem to get really protective of her, that everything else kind of goes out the window. And now she hates me, because I tried to take care of her.” 

 

“You’ve known that Pidge is a girl?” he asks. 

 

“I’ve known that since I’ve met her. But it wasn’t my place to tell anyone. “ I tell him.

 

“Quiet!” Sendak scolds us. I wiggle and pull my wrists a bit more, the metal cuffs loosening around my tiny wrists. 

 

“Elena, what are you doing?” Shiro whispers. 

 

“Trying to get free.” I whisper as the bindings fall to the floor, but I act like they are still on. I can hear static from the earpiece, like someone is trying to talk, but no voices come through. 

 

Suddenly a voice comes through my head, sounding like the Princess. “Friends, I need your help.” 

 

_ Allura?  _ My mind questions, but there is no answer. 

 

After what seems likes hours, Sendak comns, “Haxus, report in.” 

 

“Haxus is gone, and you’re next!” Pidge says. 

 

“Pidge, we’re here!” I yell, hoping she can hear me. 

 

Sendak ignores me and tells her, “You’ve slowed me down, but this ship is mine! You will turn yourself over to me immediately.”

 

“Pidge, don’t!” I yell. 

 

“Never!” is her response. 

 

“Well, then, maybe your leader can convince you.” Sendak replies. 

 

“What do you want?” Shiro asks. 

 

“What else could you want from us?” I ask. 

 

“Your friend wanted to hear from you.” 

 

“Shiro, Elena?” she asks. 

 

“Pidge? Pidge don’t listen to..” he’s cutoff because Sendak electrocutes him with his arm, and he starts to writhe in pain. 

 

“Shiro!” I yell. 

 

“No!” she screams. 

 

“You can make it stop. Turn yourself in. His suffering is in your hands.” Sendak ends the call. 

 

“I’m going to try and break us out.” I whisper to Shiro, who is lying on the floor in pain. I spot my sword and shield a few feet away, and I wait until Sendak has his back turned to make a break for it. I pick them up quietly, before saying to the Galra, “I’m not quite done with you yet Sendak.” 

 

“How did you get out my restraints?” he asks baffled. 

 

“You think your bindings could hold these tiny wrists? I don’t think so.” I tell him.

 

He looks beyond me, and I turn and see Pidge at the doorway. He lunges his arm and I move out of the way just as it brushes by my face. I turn and follow him when he runs to catch Pidge, but a noise stops me. 

 

“Elena!” a voice whispers. 

 

I turn, to find Pidge. “What are you doing here?” 

 

“Trying to save you guys.” she says. 

 

“Go, I’ll stand watch.” I tell her. I watch her run into the room, and I turn back to the hallway, only to see Sendak’s arm coming right for me. It picks me up and slams me against the wall, my vision doubling, my sword falling to the ground. 

 

“You really think that you can beat me girl?” he asks. 

 

“I can sure try.” I groan out. His arm reaches and grabs my blade, before the tip of it slices at my stomach, and I scream in pain. “You will never win Sendak. Not with me protecting Voltron.” 

 

He turns and lunges his arm forward into the control room, and my eyes start to get heavy. “You really thought your little hologram trick would work with me?” I hear Sendak ask. 

 

“Elena!” Keith calls, and he kneels down to help me. “God, what happened to you.” 

 

“They need you more than me. Go.” I weakly tell him. “Go!” I urge, and he softens his eyes before running with the princess to help the others. 

 

There are a bunch of voice speaking, and what sounds like an explosion, but I don’t lift my head up. “Elena!” Shiro’s voice calls when he sees me. “You’re going to be okay.” 

 

I feel my eyes start to droop more and I plead, “Shiro, don’t let me fall asleep. Please!” 

 

“Don’t fall asleep Elena! You’re going to be alright!” He picks me up and starts to run me to the healing pod room.

 

My eyes go against my orders, and the shut, leaving me in the dark with my pain. 

 

And that’s when the screaming starts. 


	13. Chapter Thirteen (Taking Flight)

There is an airy sound, and my eyes flutter open, a healing pod surrounding me. Memories are flooding me with what happened yesterday, up until the point I passed out. I was still in the party dress, which was ripped at the abdomen from when I was stabbed. 

 

“Thank God you’re awake.” my brother’s voice echoes from the entrance, and he pulls me into an embrace. “How are you feeling?”

 

“Nevermind that, how’s Lance?” I ask.

 

“He’s awake and being well….Lance.” he tells me. 

 

“How long was I asleep for?” I ask cautiously.

 

“A day and a half.” he tells me. There’s a pause before he asks, “When did your nightmares start again?” 

 

“How did you know?” 

 

“You started to scream when you passed out.” he responds. 

 

“Oh no.” I whisper. 

 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asks. 

 

“I couldn’t.” I tell him, and then abruptly say, “I, uh, need to go.” 

 

“This conversation isn’t over.” he says sternly. 

 

“I know.” I tell him as I run out the door. 

 

I run quickly to my room, and luckily I don’t run into Allura or the other Paladins. I shut the door behind me, before the tears flow down my cheeks.  _ No one was supposed to see me experience my nightmares.  _

 

I throw off the ripped dress before putting on more comfortable clothes. I bundle it up with the shoes that were still on the floor, and I walk down the hall to place them outside of Allura’s room. 

 

“Elena, you’re awake!” Shiro’s voice greets me as I stand up. “How are you feeling?” 

 

“I’m fine.” I tell him as we walk towards my room. When we get there, he follows me in. 

 

“Thank you for trying to protect us from Sendak. You almost died.” he tells me. I grab my bag from underneath my bed and pack the rest of my things in it. “Pidge told everyone that she’s a girl.” 

 

“I’m proud of her.” I tell him with a smile. “If you excuse me, I have to go.” I need to leave, so that they won’t witness it again. 

 

I move past him and I go towards the hanger bay, where the pod Pidge was packing up was. I find a toolbox and a ladder and climb up to the engine, so I can take care of it before I fly it. I plug my music player into the ship so I can have music to help me concentrate. Once it looks like it can fly better, I climb down from the ladder, satisfied with my work. 

 

“What are you doing?” Shiro asks as he enters the room. 

 

“Did you follow me?” I ask him. I sigh and tell him, “I’m leaving Shiro.” 

 

“You’re a part of this team Elena, we don’t want you to leave.” he says softly. 

 

“I don’t do anything of value to the team. I don’t fly a giant robot lion, I’m not the princess who helps you.” I tell him, my voice rising. 

 

“You are the protector of Voltron. You said that yourself when you were fighting Sendak.” He takes a few warning steps towards me. “Whether you know it or not, you are a part of Voltron, but in your own way.” 

 

“But no one wants me here.” I whisper. “Pidge clearly doesn't and I came here for her. And Keith clearly can take care of himself, he doesn't need his big sister.” my voice cracks, and my knees give out. I hear his footsteps rush towards me, and his arms go around me. 

 

“Come on, let’s go back to your room.” he says to me, and he picks me up and carries me back to my room. He places me on my bed before saying, “I’m going to get the rest of your stuff, I’ll be right back.”

 

I bring my knees to my chest, and feel the tears slide down my cheeks. I hear the door open, and Shiro walks in again. “Thank you.” I whisper as he places my bag on the bed. It’s quiet for a moment between us before I croak out, “I have nightmares too.” 

 

“You were having them while you were in the healing pod, weren’t you?” he asks and I give him a confused look. “I came to visit you a few times.” 

 

“Every time I go to sleep, I see the same nightmare. I can’t really explain why it's the same every time, but I always wake up screaming. I’ve tried medication, but it makes the nightmare more intense. I haven’t been sleeping because I’m afraid that I will see the nightmare when I shut my eyes. And ever since we found Voltron, they’ve been getting more intense and real.” 

 

He puts a hand on my shoulder. “We’ll figure them out. Together.” 

 

I get out of my bed and sit at the windowsill and look outside, Arus’ sun shining brightly on the land.  _ I want to go home.  _

 

I hear the door open and shut, meaning Shiro has left. I lay my head against the glass of the window, staring into space. 

 

The door opens again ten minutes later, small footsteps coming towards me. “E?” she asks. 

 

“I’m sorry Pidge.” I tell her. 

 

“I’m the one that should be sorry. I know your mom is a sensitive subject, and I shouldn’t have used it against you like that.” 

 

“The only reason that I kept mothering you was because the one promise that I made to Matt before he left was I would take care of you. And if you left without me, I would be breaking that promise.” I admit, looking at her. 

 

“If you had told me that, I probably wouldn't have yelled at you.” 

 

“You probably still would have.” I tell her, cracking a smile. “You’re just too stubborn.” 

 

She gives me a bright smile before engulfing me in a hug. “Promise you won’t try and leave again?” she asks. 

 

“I’m guessing Shiro told you then.” I ask and she nods in my arms. “I won’t leave unless it’s on a mission to find my best friend. I promise.”

 

She pulls away, and then takes something out of her pocket. “You left this in the ship, so I took it upon myself to put some more music on it and to upgrade it a little. “ She hands me my music player. 

 

“Thank you Kate.” I say, hugging her once more. 

 

“The others really want to see you. Are you willing to come out of your room?” she asks, pulling away, and I nod. She helps me up from the windowsill and I throw an arm around her shoulders. 

 

She walks me into the dining room, where everyone, including Allura and Coran, was waiting for us. “Elena, you’re awake!” Lance exclaims, and he runs over to hug me for a long time, which was classic Lance. 

 

“Okay Lance, let her breath.” Pidge says. I sit down at the head of the table, and Hunk puts some fancy food goo in front of me to eat. 

 

“Thanks Hunk.” I tell him, and I take a spoonful and put it into my mouth. 

 

“We’re all so glad that you are awake Elena.” Allura tells me. 

 

“Thank you Allura.” I say to her after I swallow my bite. 

 

“Also, thank you for defending the paladins. Without you, things would be much worse.” she tells me. 

 

“I guess I’m their Guardian.” I say with a shrug, and she looks at me with a perplexed face. 

 

_ You’re starting to embrace who you are.  _ The Black Lion’s voice invades my thoughts. 

 

_ I guess so.  _ I respond. 

 

I continue to eat the food that Hunk had put in front of me. “So what happened to Sendak? Did we kill him?” I ask. 

 

“We’re keeping him frozen in the castle in a cryo pod.” Allura responds. 

 

“Is he well secured?” I ask and she nods. I finish the rest of my food goo and ask, “So where are we going now?” 

 

“We have to go back to the Balmera and save Shay and her people.” Hunk says passionately. 

 

“You really do care about her, do you Hunk.” I say softly. 

 

“When you see what Zarkon did to these people, you understand that they have been under his thumb so long that they don’t know how to be free.” he tells us. 

 

“Then I’m down to help them.” I say, standing up. There is a slight jab in my side where I was stabbed, and I hiss in pain, and Shiro helps me sit back down again. “Sorry, I’m still healing.” 

 

“We should be there soon, so everyone get ready.” Coran informs us as I eat the last of my food. 

 

Everyone but Allura and I leave, and suddenly it’s just the two of us. “There is something that you said earlier that has left me puzzled.” She says, breaking the silence. “But it would explain how you are able to bring up the fighters.” 

 

“There’s a bunch of things about me that are puzzling.” I say with a shrug. 

 

“You said that you were Voltron’s Guardian. I haven’t heard about that in years. Elena, have you had any contact with the Lions?” 

 

“I’m with them all the time, since I am in the Castle of the Lions.” I tell her.

 

“What I mean is have they in anyway try to talk to you?” she corrects herself. 

 

“Ever since I’ve met the blue lion, all of the lions started to talk to me in my head.” I confess. 

 

“Do their paladins know?” she asks. 

 

“I’ve mainly kept this to myself, since the others would think I am crazy.” I tell her. “The black lion told me that the Guardian of Voltron protects the Defenders of the Universe. What else am I meant to do?” I ask. 

 

“I’m not entirely sure, since my father only spoke about it once to me when I was a little girl. There’s a library somewhere in the castle which might have something he wrote on the subject. I would check there first.” 

 

“Thank you Allura.” I tell her and she gives me a smile. 

 

“That’s what friends are for.” she tells me. 

 

“Also, could we not tell the paladins about this for a while? I wanted to find out what this means before I have to explain it to them.” 

 

“Of course Elena.” she says. 

 

I follow her it the control room where all of the paladins are.  I sit down on the windowsill and look out into space, and I feel my stomach drop that we are so far from home. 

 

“Okay, so when we get there, what do you think? Do we just roll up and start blasting? Or do we land and have some kind of public address system like, ‘Attention Galras, this is Voltron.Turn yourselves in’ No, blasting, right?”

 

“Hunk, calm down. And yes, blasting. “ My brother says. 

 

“It’s our first big rescue mission. He’s excited.” Shiro says. 

 

“Excited to see his new girlfriend.” Pidge teases, and I laugh.  

 

Hunk gasps, and says, “She’s not my girlfriend. She’s just a rock that I met and admire very much.” 

 

An alarm starts to blare and I stand up from my seat in a rush. “Are we being attacked?” I ask. 

 

“No, it seems to be a distress beacon.” Coran responds. 

 

“It’s coming from a nearby moon. Apparently a ship has lost power.” Allura further explains. 

 

“I wonder who it is.” Pidge asks, and I know she might be thinking of Matt and her dad. 

 

“Whoever it is will have to wait. Shay has first priority. We can check back on them when we’re done.” Hunk says. 

 

“The Paladin Code states that we must help all those in need.” Allura tells him. 

 

“I know how much you want to save her Hunk, but we need to think about the rest of the universe as well.” I tell him quietly, putting a hand on his shoulder. 

 

“Wow this is so cool! It’s like we’re space cops on space patrol. Coran, do we have a siren we can turn on?” Lance asks. 

 

“Uh, no, but we could record you making a siren noise and broadcast that to them.” Coran responds.  

 

“Perfect!” he says and immediately starts to make a loud obnoxious noise. 

 

“No, you’re not doing that.” I tell him, and I run over to put a hand on his mouth. He starts to make noises and I say, “Promise not to make that noise any more?” and his head nods. “Good.” And I take my hand off of him. 

  
  


I watch as we fly through the galaxy and land on the moon that that distress signal was coming from. Allura announces to them that we are landing, and the boys and I start to get ready to get out. 

 

“Elena, wait here for a moment.” Allura tells me and I nod. She darts out of the room, and I look out at the magenta sky that is in front of me. Moments later, I hear her footsteps re-enter the control room. “You’re going to need this if you are going to survive out there.” she hands me a white and purple garment and a helmet to match. 

 

“Thank you.” I tell her, and I throw the spacesuit on. I follow her and the paladins to the space pod we are taking down, and I stay behind the paladins to be safe. When we get down to the surface of the moon, the doors, open, and a cool breeze greets my face. 

 

“You don’t know how glad we are to see some friendly faces.” the white haired alien says when we get down there. “Most folks don’t want to get tangled up with someone who is on the run from the Galra.” 

 

“So you guys are fighting the Galra?” Keith asks.

 

“Well I don’t think that Zarkon is exactly quaking in his boots about the three of us. But we do what we can.” he pauses. “I’m Rolo. This is Nyma, and out cyber-unit, Beezer.” 

 

“Hi.” she says and I hear Lance sigh in front of me. Beezer beeps, and I smile at it as Pidge gasps at the robot.

 

“Cool robot!” she says. 

 

“Hi, name’s Lance.” Lance flirts and I roll my eyes. 

 

“Was your ship damaged in a fight?” Shiro asks, and the question peaks my interest. 

 

“Yeah, we’ve really been through it with the Galra. Parts are hard to come by. Luckily we were able to limp to this moon about a week ago. If you didn’t pick up our distress signal, I-.”

 

“We’re happy to help. I am Princess Allura of Altea and from now on you won’t be alone in fighting the Galra. You’ll have Elena and the Paladins of Voltron on your side.”

 

Lance and Pidge play around in the background, his laughter being heard by all of us. “Okay.” Rolo says, unconvinced. 

 

“I don’t think they’ve heard of us.” Shiro says. 

 

“It has been ten thousand years.” Keith mutters. 

 

“And they certainly don’t know me.” I mutter to the two of them, and they laugh.  

 

“Voltron? Five robot lions that combine into this big robot...guy?” Lance asks. 

 

“Sounds impressive. I’d love to see it. Or him.Them.” 

 

“Why don’t we get to work on your ship? I’m sure we all have places to be.” Hunk asks monotonously. 

 

“Sure.” Rolo agrees. He leads us all to their ship and says as it opens, “Pretty much out who flaxum assembly is shot. I don’t know what kind of extra parts you carry in this rig of yours. I’ve never seen anything like it.” 

 

“We can get you up and running soon.” I tell him, and he gives me a large smile. 

 

“Give Hunk a list of what you need. Coran can show you where to find it.” Allura picks up for me. Behind me, I heard Lance trying to flirt with Nyma, her giggling coming behind me. It was starting to get annoying. I turn around to go and tell them both to stop, but Shiro has it covered as he hit some sense into Lance. 

 

“Okay.” Hunk mutters. 

 

“We’ll go with you. Don’t want you to have to carry all that yourself. Come one guys.” Rolo says, starting to move, but Hunk stops him. 

 

“Uh, I don’t think so. You can just wait out here.” he says. 

 

“Hunk, don’t be rude.” I tell him gently. 

 

“Yeah, mind your manners. There are ladies present.” Lance says, which causes me to roll my eyes once more, and I hear Shiro sigh. 

 

“Oh, I’m sorry, but does anyone remember the last time we let our defenses down? Someone kind of set off a bomb. Remember, Lance, Elena? You two were almost killed.” 

 

“Oh, yeah.” Lance says.

 

“You’re right.” I speak. 

 

“Hunk’s right. Sorry, but we have to be cautious.” Shiro says, taking a look at me.

 

“Hey, I don’t take it personal. That’s how it is out here.” he says, and his little robot spit some paper out of his mouth. “You’ve got to look out for your own. You’re doing a good job, big man.” 

 

“Yeah, thanks.” 

 

We were all working so hard that the sky turned dark, and Rolo set up a fire, and I sit near it for warmth. Rolo sits next to me. “My planet was destroyed by the Galra and I was taken captive. I managed to escape, not before I lost something.” He shows us his metal leg. 

 

“I know exactly how that feels.” Shiro says, showing him his robot arm. 

 

“Well, I hope there are some parts in here that’ll fit.” Hunk say pulling them along. “You know, to get your ship moving?” 

 

“Great! Thanks.” Rolo calls. 

 

“So, what can you tell us about Zarkon’s forces?” Allura asks, as PIdge plays around with Beezer. “Where are they concentrated?”

 

“Well, his command ship sits right in the center of the Empire. He mostly calls the shots from there and has his minions do the work, depending on who’s closest. This is the territory of a real nasty bugger named Sendak.” His body moves closer to mine. 

 

“That bastard.” I mutter, thinking about him stabbing me, and I put a hand on my stomach in memory. Rolo puts a hand on my leg, but I move it away from him. 

 

“Oh, we’ve met.” My brother said. 

 

“How far are we from the center?” Shiro asks. 

 

“We’re way out on the fringes.” Rolo responds. 

 

“Sorry to interrupt, but I think you guys are kind of keeping Rolo from working. It’s just that we’re in a hurry. A hero named Shay saved my life, and I swore I would return to do the same for her and her people. You understand.” Hunks says. 

 

“Sure. Sorry.” he says, getting up to pat Hunk’s shoulder. 

 

I watch as Rolo opens the container of parts, and Shiro says to Hunk, “Hunk, we’re going to get going soon, but I think Rolo might have some information that could be helpful to us.” 

 

“Not for nothing, but I don’t trust this guy as far as I can throw him. I think we ought to leave him with parts and just say  _ Adios amigo.” _

 

“Hey bud, sorry, but do you think you could hunt down a length of thermal pipe about yay long?” Rolo demonstrates with his hands.  

 

Hunk groans before saying, “On the way.” 

 

Shiro walks over to Rolo and starts to talk to him, and so does Keith and Allura, and I pull my knees up to my chest and stare at the fire, something feeling off. 

 

“You okay E?” Pidge asks. 

 

“I’m fine, I just have a weird feeling is all.” I tell her. “I’m probably still feeling the effects of the healing pod. But it’s okay, don’t worry about me right now.” 

 

“Alright.” she says quietly. 

 

“Hey, Elena right?” Rolo asks, and I nod. “Lance says you’re good with engines. Will you come help me?” 

 

“I can try. I am very limited at the moment.” I tell him. “I’ll be back.” I say to Pidge. 

 

“So what happened?” he asks gesturing to my side, as we walk over to his ship. 

 

“I got stabbed.” I tell him simply. “But I’m still healing.” 

 

Once we get over to his ship, he opens the engine door. “Could you possibly take a look and see if there are any parts that Hunk needs to get?” 

 

“Sure.” I tell him, and I walk into the engine room. I check all of breakers and the buttons to see if they are working and they all seem to be in order. I then bend down to check the fuel levels, just to be sure. As I do this, I feel Rolo’s hand on my back, and it was slowly moving down. “What are you doing?” I ask, and when I do, it stops. 

 

“Nothing.” he says nonchalantly. 

 

“Fine.” I breath out. I continue my inspection of the engines, before declaring, “It all seems to be in order here.” 

 

“Great, thanks.” Rolo responds. “Let’s go back to the others.” 

 

As we walk out of the engine room he puts his hand on my back, and starts to feel up and down it. “I don’t mean to be rude, but the only place that I was stabbed was my stomach. If you don’t stop touching me, my fists  _ will  _ find your face.” 

 

He jerks his hands back and we walk the rest of the way in silence. When we get back outside, he goes over to help Hunk again. As I walk back over to the fire, I see the Blue Lion come out of it’s hanger, and I don’t see Lance or Nyma around. 

 

_ Classic Lance. _

 

As I sit down, the uncomfortable feeling comes back to me, and suddenly my stomach drops like I was on a rollercoaster.  _ What is that?  _

 

“Are you okay Elena?” Allura asks. 

 

“Honestly I don't know.” I tell her. “I’m sure whatever it is will pass.” 

 

“I think this thing is just about ready for a test run.” Rolo says, shutting the door that he and my brother were working on. “Beezer, come copilot for me.” he says to the robot, and something seems suspicious. “Be back in a tick.” 

 

The ship starts to take off and it flies away, and everyone is confused, but they go with it. 

 

After a while of them being gone, Pidge asks, “How many ticks have they been gone?” 

 

“I don’t know.” Allura responds. “I hope they didn’t break down again. 

 

“I hope they’re stranded in the middle of space.” I mutter, throwing down the piece of moon rock that I was playing with. 

 

“Something ain’t right.” Hunk says. 

 

_ Elena can you hear me?  _ Blue’s voice asks in my head. 

 

I lift my head up and respond,  _ Yes, I can. Where’s Lance? What’s wrong?  _

 

_ I’ve been taken by Nyma, Rolo and Beezer! Nyma tied Lance to a tree, and took me instead!  _ He responds panicked. 

 

“Guys, hello? Little help?” Lance’s voice comes through the comms in Shiro’s helmet. 

 

“Lance? Lance! Are you alright? What’s going on?” Shiro asks as he puts his helmet on. 

 

Suddenly I blurt out, “Nyma tied him to a tree and took the Blue Lion!”, and Allura gives me a knowing look. 

 

“I knew it!” Hunk exclaims. 

 

“Where are they?” Shiro asks Lance and I. 

 

“Uh, space?” Lance responds through the helmet as I shrug my head.

 

“Uh, I never trusted those guys right from the beginning!” Hunk exclaims. “At first it was a feeling in my gut, but when I was replacing that pipe, the pipe was cracked, but none of the hardware around it was damaged.” Hunk says as he goes to his Lion. 

 

I follow Allura into the Castle of Lions and find my fighter. “Plus, he asked me to look at the engine, but nothing was wrong with it.” I tell them through the comms. 

 

“We get it.” Keith responds angrily. 

 

Hunk continues to go on about the thermal pipe, but I tune him out to get the fighters online. We follow the Lions and end up finding the ship pretty easily. “Want me to fire blasters?” I ask Coran. 

 

“Not yet.” he says, holding me off. 

 

I squint my eyes up ahead and see that paladins are coming close to an asteroid field. “We’ll never make it through this asteroid field.” I hear Pidge say. 

 

“Maybe I can just bust through.” Hunk says, and I watch as he rams forward into one, moving ones around it. “Nope. That was wrong. That was a bad idea.” he says panicked. 

 

“Keith, you’re probably the only one that could fly through this. We need you buddy. Get in there and flush him out.” Shiro says to my brother, and I smile when he calls him buddy. 

 

“You got it. See you on the other side.” 

 

“Good luck little bro.” I tell him. I watch him zoom through the field. “Go Keith!” I exclaim. 

 

The ship starts to fire at him with their blasters, and I want to fight back but they are too far ahead. They continue to fight each other, until Keith hits their blasters, leaving them immobilized. He sends one more blast, hitting the ship entirely. The Red Lion takes hold of the ship, and stops it, all of the other lions and paladins surrounding it. 

 

“Yeah!” I hear Keith exclaim. “Hey Lance, I got your lion back.” he says through the comms to the blue paladin. 

 

“Thank you Keith. Now can you come and unchain me?” he asks. 

 

“Whoops, we forgot Lance.” I say with a laugh, and Coran laughs with me. 

 

We fly back to the planet and find Lance immediately. “Since your ship really doesn’t work now, you’ll have to wait here for rescue.” Keith tells them when they are unloaded from their ship. 

 

“Thanks for sparing our lives.” Rolo says, and I glare at him. 

 

“We really shouldn’t have.” I mutter, and Shiro puts a hand on my shoulder. 

 

“Now that these guys are dealt with, let’s get to the Balmera and save Shay and her family.” Hunk says. 

 

“You may not believe this, but I do hope that you stop Zarkon. It’s a lifetime of fighting the Galra that lead me to where I am today.” Rolo says to us. As we all turn away, Rolo calls, “Elena?” 

 

“What?” I ask. 

 

“I’m sorry for...you know.” he says, scratching the back of his neck. 

 

“Yeah well, you should of thought of that before.” I tell him with a sigh. “Goodbye Rolo, Nyma.”I say, and I turn and walk back to the castle. 

 

When I get back in there, Shiro was waiting for me. “What did Rolo want?” 

 

I sigh. “I’ll tell you later. Right now, I just want to relax a little bit with a walk around the castle.” 

 

“Did you want some company?” he asks. 

 

“Thanks for the offer, but I’d rather be alone.” I say, giving him a smile. 

 

I turn and walk in the direction of the hager, where the Lions are housed. I make sure the door is locked before heading towards the blue Lion. “How are you holding up?” I ask him. 

 

_ I’m just glad to be back with the others.  _ He responds. 

 

“I may have given away to the paladins that I can speak to you. Should I tell them?” 

 

_ The paladins aren’t ready yet Guardian.  _ The Black lion interjects.  _ You will know when they are ready to know.  _

 

“Was Allura right when she said that King Alfor had a book on the Guardian of Voltron?” I ask him.

 

_ Yes, but only you can sense it. The quintessence in you can mirror it’s own. _ The Green Lion tells me.  _ You must learn about who you are and what powers that you can hold. For the sake of Voltron. _

 

“Where is it?” I ask. 

 

_ It’s in his personal library. Your quarters are down the hall from it.  _ The red lion tells me.

 

“Thank you.” I tell them. 

 

I leave the hanger bay and make my way to Alfor’s library. I take a deep breath before entering. Quite quickly, I feel a tug in my abdomen, where the pain in my side was coming from. As I moved, I felt it get stronger until I reached the back wall of the library. I stop as the tug gets as strong as it gets, and nothing stands out to me. I look down and up the book case, until I spot a small secret door on the ceiling. 

 

I get a wheeled ladder and climb it carefully, and once I get close to the door, it drops down to reveal a small book that looks like it hasn't’ been opened in a long time. 

 

I rush back to my room in an instant, eager to look through the book. I can feel the energy emulating off of the book as I open it, and suddenly it was like the words were coming off of the page. 


End file.
